Skip to main content
Main

Tomato Catsup

A preserved tomato sauce made by boiling tomatoes, seasoning, and vinegar, then stored in a jar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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.

  2. Place the tomatoes in a bell-metal or porcelain kettle.

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

  4. Strain the tomatoes.

  5. Press the strained tomatoes through a colander and then through a fine sieve.

  6. Return the tomatoes to the fire.

Season and cook

  1. Add the seasoning.

  2. Boil for at least five hours.

  3. Stir constantly for the last hour.

Rest, finish and store

  1. Let the mixture stand for twelve hours in a stone jar on the cellar floor.

  2. When cold, add the vinegar.

  3. Remove the bag of celery seed.

  4. Bottle the catsup.

  5. Seal the corks.

  6. Keep 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
Provide the main body, juice and pulp that form the ketchup.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the sauce and helps draw out flavour during long cooking.
Ground mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that balances the tomatoes' sweetness.
Strong vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavour and helps preserve the finished ketchup.

The step that matters

Stir constantly for the last hour. Tomato sauce thickens and scorches easily near the end of a long boil. Constant stirring keeps the bottom from burning and gives an even, smooth texture.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against 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.

More tomato ketchup recipes

Green 26 See all 523 →

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesTomato BisqueTomato Bisque61 recipes