“Make this catsup once, and you will wish to make it every year.” From The Young Housekeeper’s Friend, 1859.
Dear friends ~
I’m so sorry to miss sending the Wednesday and Friday emails last week. The kids and I took turns coming down with a bad cold that was going around school, and it really threw me off my game. We’re so glad to be on the other side of that!
The first day the kids were home sick, before it caught up with me, I decided to take advantage of the quiet home day and make a large batch of this catsup recipe.
Having a big fragrant pot simmering away on the stove, while replenishing tissues, bringing juice boxes, and reading Jules Verne aloud to snuffly kids, was so cozy and comforting.
About that spelling. If (like most US readers) you grew up spelling it “ketchup”, you may find it interesting that throughout the 1800’s, “catsup” was actually a more common spelling of the condiment–at least as represented in American cook books. There were many varied spellings, but things finally coalesced around “ketchup” once Heinz adopted that spelling around the turn of the 20th century. (Here’s more about the history of ketchup, if you’re interested!)
The biggest difference you’ll notice, is that like nearly all 1800’s tomato catsup recipes, this doesn’t call for sugar. All the sweetness is from the tomatoes themselves, with a little help from the wine and vinegar. This is a tangy, warmly-spiced condiment that would have been used primarily for meat, as well as for flavoring in some types of soup.
Depending on how hot your peppers are, this also may be much spicer than you might expect. All around, I love it as a more flavorful, less-sweet alternative to the modern versions. If you like condiments, this is one worth trying!
~ Anna
The Young Housekeeper’s Friend, 1859
“ANOTHER CATSUP”
(retaining the color and flavor of the Fruit)
Skin and slice the tomatoes, and boil them an hour and a half. Then put to one gallon not strained, a quarter of an ounce of mace, the same of nutmegs and cloves, one handful of horseradish, two pods of red pepper, or a large teaspoonful of cayenne, and salt as you like it. Boil it away to three quarts, and then add a pint of wine and half a pint of vinegar. Bottle it, and leave the bottles open two or three days; then cork it tight. Make this catsup once, and you will wish to make it every year.
Here’s a photo of the recipe as it appears in the cookbook:
A FEW COOKING NOTES:
This recipe is about as straightforward as it gets, so I don’t have much to clarify for this one. Do use the freshest horseradish you can find, that’s my biggest exhortation here!
Choosing Tomatoes
I’ve only made this recipe once, but I’ve made many a batch of other ketchup recipes over the years, and I can confidently say that the type of tomatoes you use does influence the flavor of the finished product.
Opt for vine-ripe heirlooms if you can find them. Flavorful tomatoes make the best sauces.
That Horseradish
My own little horseradish plants are just getting started and were too small to use this year, so I ended up using store-bought horseradish root. It was woody, wizened, and had clearly been sitting around for heaven-only-knows how long. When tasting it, I definitely observed it had more bitterness than good fresh roots right out of the soil.
Perhaps unwisely, I used it anyway, mincing up “a handful”, of the peeled root to follow the recipe. To my taste, I feel this inferior horseradish added a hint of bitterness to the final ketchup that I don’t believe would have been there, if using good freshly-harvested stuff.
In the future, if I didn’t have excellent fresh horseradish root, I’d probably opt for using a jar of prepared horseradish with very minimal ingredients, instead.
Storing This Recipe
When this cook book was published, tomato catsup was considered a shelf-stable condiment, to be kept in a cool pantry or cellar storage. The wine and vinegar don’t just add flavor, but their acidity aided in making this a food item that could be bottled and stored for the winter.
Not having a modern safety-tested canning recipe equivalent to this one, I personally decided to err on the side of caution and store my bottles of ketchup in the fridge. I’ll also be sharing bottles of it with family and friends. This really is good stuff, so it definitely won’t be making it through the winter!
Many thanks to all who voted in last week’s poll about which yeast recipe we should try. 90.5% of you voted for potato, with 9.5% opting for hops. Potato it is! I’ve got a great potato yeast recipe I’m looking forward to sharing later in the week, and then the baking can commence.
We’ve had a lot of food preservation recipes lately, and “putting up” would have been high-priority for any country housewife of the era. Thanks for bearing with me, as I’m putting up my own harvest, and have been focussing so heavily on this type of recipes! As always, feel free to send me an email anytime, with recipe requests! ‘Til next time, ~ Anna
This post was originally published in the 1800’s Housewife newsletter. Not on the mailing list? You can join here to receive full recipes with cooking notes straight to your inbox!
📖 Recipe
Ingredients
- 7 quarts tomatoes, peeled and sliced
- ¼ ounce mace
- ¼ ounce cloves
- ¼ ounce nutmeg
- ⅓ cup horseradish
- 2 red peppers (hot) (or large teaspoon cayenne)
- salt to taste (I used about 2 tsp)
- 1 pint wine
- ½ pint vinegar (apple cider vinegar is a good choice)
Instructions
- Skin and slice the tomatoes, and boil them an hour and a half.
- Then put to one gallon not strained, a quarter of an ounce of mace, the same of nutmegs and cloves, one handful of horseradish, two pods of red pepper, or a large teaspoonful of cayenne, and salt as you like it.
- Boil it away to three quarts, and then add a pint of wine and half a pint of vinegar.
- Bottle it, and leave the bottles open two or three days; then cork it tight.
- Make this catsup once, and you will wish to make it every year.
If you liked this recipe, here are some others you may enjoy:
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