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Tomato Catsup (Take one bushel of firm ripe)
Take one bushel of firm ripe tomatoes-the Feejee Island, known by their pink or purple color, and the "Trophy," are the best and richest varieties for catsup and canning. Wipe them off nicely with a damp cloth, cut out the cores, and put them in a porcelain-lined iron kettle or a genuine bell-metal one. Place over the fire, and pour over them about three pints of water, throw in two large handfuls of peach leaves, with ten or twelve onions or shallots cut fine. Boil until the tomatoes are done, which will take about two hours. then strain through a coarse-mesh sieve, pour the liquid back again into the boiling kettle and add half a gallon of good strong cider vinegar; have ready two ounces ground spice, two ounces ground black pepper, two ounces mustard (either ground or in the seed, as you prefer), one ounce ground cloves, two grated nutmegs, two pounds light brown sugar, and one pint of salt; mix these ingredients well together before putting in the boiler; then boil two hours, stirring continually to prevent burning. If you like the catsup "hot." add cayenne pepper to your taste. When cool, fill bottles (reeded bottles are the nicest, they can be procured at the house furnisher's, and a set will last some time; they look better than ones of all sizes and styles). Cork and seal with bottle-wax so as to exclude the air. Keep in a cool, dry place for future use. This recipe is preferred to all others-it has been used for years. It keeps well, and has been pronounced by competent judges superior to all others.-G. D., Baltimore, Md.
This is a nineteenth-century bulk catsup that depends on two things no current kitchen should reproduce: a flavouring made from peach leaves, and cork-and-wax bottling with no heat process. The notes below explain the recipe rather than adapt it.
- Peach leaves are the disqualifying ingredientPeach foliage contains cyanogenic glycosides (chiefly prunasin), which release hydrogen cyanide when leaf tissue is crushed and wetted and the plant's own enzymes act on it. "Two large handfuls" steeped in a simmering kettle is an uncontrolled dose from material that varies by tree, season and leaf age, and the leaves were valued for a bitter-almond aroma that comes from those same compounds. There is no way to measure it safely at home.
- Cork and bottle-wax is not a sealWax over a cork excludes some air but applies no heat process and creates no vacuum. A part-filled bottle stored for months relies entirely on the vinegar, salt and sugar to hold, with mould and yeast growth at the neck the usual result. Modern practice is a hot-fill into sterilised jars with a tested closure and a measured water-bath time.
- The scale is a preserving-kitchen scaleA bushel of tomatoes is reckoned at roughly 53 lb, and the strained liquid plus half a gallon of vinegar makes a batch measured in gallons rather than jars. The pint of salt, two pounds of sugar and half-gallon of vinegar are proportioned to that, not to a domestic batch, and the two-hour open-kettle reduction with continuous stirring assumes a large kettle and someone at it the whole time.
- "Ground spice" means allspice"Ground spice" probably means allspice -- In American books of this period "spice" unqualified is usually allspice (pimento), though the recipe does not say so. Two ounces of it, plus two of black pepper, one of cloves and two grated nutmegs, makes a heavily spiced sauce rather than anything close to modern tomato ketchup.
- The tomato varieties are gone from commerceThe "Fejee" (Fiji) and "Trophy" were popular market tomatoes of the 1860s-70s, valued for size and solidity. Trophy survives in heirloom seed catalogues; Fejee is scarce in commerce. The practical point is to use dense, fully ripe fruit rather than watery slicers.
- VesselsA "porcelain-lined iron kettle" is enamelled cast iron, and bell metal is a high-tin bronze. Bare iron discolours acid fruit pulp, which is why lined or alloy kettles were named; stainless or enamel serves the same purpose now.
- If you want tomato catsupUse a current tested recipe with measured acidity and a specified water-bath process. Do not substitute or reduce the peach leaves and proceed.
The Dixie Cook-Book belongs to the era when catsup was still a plural genus rather than one product: mushroom, walnut, oyster and cucumber catsups all appear in books of the 1870s and 80s, and the tomato version won out only gradually. Peach and cherry-laurel leaves were a standard nineteenth-century flavouring for exactly the reason they are now avoided, giving a bitter-almond note used in custards, blancmanges and pickles alike; prussic-acid poisoning from laurel and peach leaves had been reported in the medical literature well before this book, yet household books went on recommending them freely. The contributed attribution to "G. D., Baltimore, Md." and the boast that competent judges pronounced it superior are typical of these subscription compilations, which were assembled from readers' own kitchen papers and traded on that authority rather than on any tested standard.