Making Mushroom Ketchup, 18th Century Cooking Series at Jas. Townsend and Son - Townsends

Many different 18th century recipes and a lot of writings refer to something called ketchup. Now ketchup in the 18th century wasn’t so much like this as it is more like this. The word ketchup finds its roots in 17th century China. The Chinese had a similar sounding name for a concoction that consisted of pickled fish and spices. The British traders found this seasoning to be delightful. They brought it home and it quickly became the staple of the English and American diet. Today we’re going to make an 18th century ketchup recipe with mushrooms. This would be a seasoning or a flavor that 18th century soldiers would be very familiar with. James Townsend and Son carries all the equipment we’ll be using today and you can find each one of these things in our catalog or on our website. We’re starting off with 2 pounds of fresh mushrooms, but first a word of warning. We’re using common brown mushrooms in our recipe today. These mushrooms are native throughout Europe and North America but even common mushrooms can easily be mistaken for poisonous or even deadly varieties, so make sure to use something you know is completely safe. With our mushrooms, we need to gently wipe these mushrooms off. We don’t want to rinse them off or wash them because that added liquid would dilute our final flavors. And we’re going to add these to our tin cooking pot. We need to draw the juices out of our chopped up mushrooms. The best way to do that is to add a couple spoonfuls of salt. In addition to that salt, we’re going to add a couple of bay leaves. We’re going to mash it up, smoosh these mushrooms down in and then we’re going to cover it and then let it set for about 10 minutes. We’ve let these set 10 minutes and they’ve already started reducing. The liquids being drawn out of the mushrooms and it’s already reduced in size a little bit. I’m going to transfer these into a milk pan here and then we can let this sit overnight. I’m going to put this pie pan on top just to keep the critters out. The first recipe for tomato ketchup was in 1801, but tomato ketchup did not become popular until the mid-19th century. The tomato plant is a member of the deadly nightshade family and many people considered it a deadly poison in the 18th century. Well, let’s take a look. There we have it. The mushrooms have completely masticated and now it’s time for the next step. So now it’s time to add in 1 chopped up onion, the zest of 1 lemon and 1 tablespoon of finely grated horse radish. James Townsend and Son offers a pocket spice kit. It comes with salt and pepper, cinnamon, cayenne and thyme. It also comes with an empty vial and in that vial I’ve added cloves. In the recipe here, we’re going to use a quarter teaspoon of cloves. We’re going to use a pinch of cayenne and some allspice also, about a half a teaspoon. And the last ingredient we need is a quarter to a half a cup of cider vinegar. We’re going to stir up all these things together and then we’re going to put this over the fire and let it simmer for about 15 minutes. Joseph Plumb Martin’s book, sometimes called Private Yankee Doodle, many times it mentions when he’s eating, that they’re lacking sauce for their meat. More than likely this is what he was craving. This is done simmering now. I’ve let it cool a little bit but now it’s time to pour it off and I’ve got our milk pan and I’ve got a squeeze cloth here. I’m going to pour this in here to let it cool. Once this is cooled off, we’re going to take that cloth and bundle it up and squeeze all the liquid out. There’re some amazing complex flavors in this. You get the salt first, then some of the other spices, the earthiness of the mushrooms, very complex, very wonderful flavor. We’re going to cork this up. We’re going to bottle it, cork it, and save it for our future recipes. So when you’re done with squeezing out the mushrooms, you don’t want to get rid of that. You don’t want to throw that out. That is especially good stuff. You dry that and you can either leave it like it is or you can grind it up. Some of this stuff you can sprinkle it almost like salt. It is really, really good stuff. And there we have it, our ketchup. Our 2 pounds of mushrooms worked out to be a little over a pint of liquid ketchup. We also have our leftover dried mushrooms. Those are going to be great for future recipes. All the equipment that you saw here, all the utensils, it’s available on our website, in our print catalog, and don’t forget to follow us on Facebook.

Channel: Townsends

Views: 1,687,594

Rating: 4.9572177 out of 5

Keywords: Mushroom, Food, Kitchen, Recipe, Cooking, Making, 18th, century, revolutionary, war, reenacting, catsup, mushroom sauce, worchestershire sauce, Home Made, Ketchup (Ingredient), History, historical cooking, colonial cooking, 18th century, Educational, 18th century foods, Mushroom Ketchup, #townsendsS1E12, 18th century Cooking, #townsendsmushroomketchup, mushroom ketchup recipe

Id: 29u_FejNuks

Length: 6min 30sec (390 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 09 2012

Reddit Comments

[u/leadchipmunk]

I will never not upvote John. I've made this recipe multiple times and it is wonderful. It is somewhat similar to worcestershire sauce, but with more earthy umami flavor. Also save the mushroom bits and dry them in the oven on low and put them in a pepper mill. They make a great seasoning, or add the unground chunks to soups or rice for some extra pop.

[u/LouGoyle]

This and his Portable Soup recipe are the two things I've been wanting to try since I found his channel.

[u/Caiur]

I love this channel! I'd give my left nut for someone to do an ancient/medieval/renaissance version.

[u/i_am_not_mike_fiore]

This recipe is delicious, I've made it several times.

One time, however, some kinds of wild yeast must have made it into the salted mushrooms while they sat, because the end result was very fermented and was a lighter color than normal. Weird.

[u/Iwokeupwithoutapillo]

Aw neat, my brother and I have been talking about making this for ages. I guess seeing this is my cue to get to it already.

Also always glad to see this channel get more views.

[u/ChristoCritter]

What the Hell was that spice kit he plugged. Salt, pre-ground pepper, cayenne, cinnamon, and thyme. Seems like a really weak choice of spices to be selling.

[u/Bradyrulez]

I love this channel so much.

[u/4thekarma]

The audio on this video is great

[u/reverseskip]

Heston Blumenthal did something similar in his steak episode. He looked up an old cooking book to find the recipe. But, of course, he did it in his spiffy kitchen.