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Tomato Catsup

A preserved tomato sauce seasoned with spices and vinegar, boiled and bottled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Tomato Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Cut a slit in the tomatoes and place them in a bell-metal or porcelain kettle.

  2. Boil until the juice is extracted and the pulp is dissolved.

  3. Strain and press through a colander, then through a fine sieve.

Cook and season

  1. Return to the fire, add the seasoning, and boil for at least five hours, stirring constantly for the last hour.

  2. Let it stand for twelve hours in a stone jar on the cellar floor.

Finish and bottle

  1. When cold, add the vinegar, remove the celery seed bag, and bottle.

  2. Seal the corks and store in a dark, cool place.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Clove + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Ripe tomatoes
Form the main body of the ketchup, providing pulp, juice and the base flavour.
Salt
Seasons the ketchup and helps draw out moisture and preserve the sauce.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavour and helps keep the finished sauce stable.
Ground mustard
Adds pungent, sharp flavour that balances the sweetness of the tomatoes.
Celery seed
Contributes a savoury aroma, infused into the sauce through a muslin bag.

The step that matters

Long simmering with constant stirring in the last hour. Prolonged boiling reduces the water and concentrates the flavour. In the final hour the sauce thickens quickly and can scorch on the bottom of the kettle if not stirred constantly.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, pepper, clove, mustard, celery, vinegar):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, clove, mustard, celery, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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