Historical and Modern bakes
Add milk to unbeaten egg white and stir in gradually enough sugar to handle. Flavor and drop by teaspoons on oil paper or shape into patties with pastry tube.
Gateau d’Epice is the name for French gingerbread flavored with vanilla. Pound a quarter of a pod of vanilla with a dessert spoonful of Brandy. Stir into it a half pound of treacle, and put it into a sauce pan with a quarter of a pound of butter, half an ounce of powdered cinnamon, half an ounce of ground ginger, an ounce of candied lemon, orange, and citron together, cut into thin slices, and a pinch of salt. Let this simmer gently for five or six minutes, stirring all the time, then pour the mixture into a bowl, and, when cool, add as much finely sifted flour as will make it into a solid batter. Bake in a slow oven on butter tins, in small rounds, placed at a little distance from each other. Time to bake, 3/4 of an hour.
Pour half a pint of boiling milk over half a pint of finely grated bread crumbs, and let the latter soak for an hour. Then mix with them three tablespoonfuls of finely sifted sugar, three well beaten eggs, a dessert spoonful of ginger syrup, and four ounces of preserved ginger, cut into small pieces. Beat all thoroughly with a fork, pour into a well oiled mold, steam, and, when done, turn out with care. Time, one hour and a half to steam.
Rub 4 ounces of fresh butter into half a pound of flour, and add three tablespoonfuls of sugar, half an ounce of ground ginger, and one egg beaten up with a little milk to a smooth paste. Make up into small round biscuits, and bake on buttered paper for eight or 10 minutes; Leave a little distance between each cake.
Mix half a pound of treacle and about 1 ounce of powder ginger (more or less, according to taste) with one pound of flour. Stir well together, to form a stiff dough, roll it out thin, and cut it into small rounds with a pastry cutter, and bake on a buttered tin, in a good oven for five or six minutes till crisp. A small lump of butter may be rubbed in if desired.
Mix 1 ounce of ground ginger with a quarter of a pound of ground rice, and 3/4 of a pound of best flour. Put into a jar one pound of treacle, half a pound of sugar, half a pound of fresh butter, and the thinly peeled rind of two lemon, cut into thin slices, and six ounces of sweet almonds, with four or five bitter ones, pounded in a mortar, with a few drops of water, to prevent oiling. Place the jar near the fire, and when the butter is melted, pour all into the flour. Beat till quite light, and bake in a quick oven, on a buttered tin for 13 minutes, if made in small cakes.
Mix well together a pound of sifted sugar, 2 ounces of ground ginger, half a nutmeg, and a little grated lemon rind, 3 pounds and a half of flour, a pound of chopped raisins, and a pound of currants, an ounce of carbonate of soda, and two ounces of chopped candied peel. Warm a pound of treacle; stir into it 3/4 of a pound of butter, and six eggs. Beat the whole, until thoroughly mixed, with a cup full of milk. Pour into a well oiled dish, or shallow tins, and bake in a slow oven for two hours.
Proceed in the same way as directed for Almond gingerbread, substituting rasped coconut for pounded almonds.
Put a quarter of a pound of butter into a jar with half a pound of treacle, and place the jar near the fire till the butter is melted. Mix well, adding one tablespoon full of oatmeal, half an ounce of sifted ginger, the rind of a lemon, cut into thin slices, and as much flour as will make a stiff batter. Pour into a well buttered mold, and bake in a good oven. Time, from 30 to 40 minutes.
Warm half a pound of best treacle. Stir into it a piece of butter the size of an egg, and four tablespoonfuls of sifted sugar. Take a little powdered allspice, a heaped teaspoon full of ground ginger, the rind of a lemon chopped fine, and a pound of the best flour. Mix all the dry ingredients together, and stir the treacle and butter into them. Last of all, dissolve an ounce of carbonate of soda in a tablespoon full of warm cream, and put it with the rest. Work all well together for some time. Roll the mixture out to the thickness of half an inch. Divide it into fingers and put at once on a well oiled tins, in a moderate oven. Put the fingers in a dry place, not exposed to the air, and they will be the better for a month’s keeping. Time to bake an hour or more.
Warm one pound of treacle in a bowl before the fire, and stir into it 6 ounces of butter. When dissolved, beaten as much flour, with two tablespoons full of oatmeal and half an ounce of powder ginger, as will form a stiff firm batter. Beat it till smooth, and add 2 ounces of candied lemons sliced as thin as possible. Butter some molds, and baking a quick oven for nearly an hour.
Melt one pound of honey in a saucepan; And when it is quite hot mixed with it 6 ounces of moist sugar, an ounce of powder cinnamon, 2 ounces of candy lemon, cut into thin slices, 4 ounces of sweet almonds, blanched and sliced, and sufficient flour to make it into a stiff paste. Roll the paste out two or three times, so as to have it quite smooth and stiff; Make it into cakes of any shape or size, about 1/4 of an inch in thickness, and bake on butter tins in a moderate oven for half an hour or more.
Put 4 ounces of fresh butter into a jar, near the fire, with half a pound of treacle, and half a pound of moist sugar. Mix half a pound of flour with one tablespoon full of ground ginger, the finely chopped rind and juice of half a large lemon, and one teaspoon full of powdered cinnamon. When the butter is melted, mix it with the treacle etc, into the flour, and beat altogether for some minutes. Spread the mixture very thin leopon buttered baking tins, and baking a moderate oven. Watch it particularly, and as soon as the gingerbread is done enough, take it out and cut it into squares, and curl each square around the finger. Keep closely covered in a tin box. This gingerbread will keep three or four weeks, but his best when newly made. Should it lose its crispness, it should be put into the oven for two or three minutes before being used. Time, 10 minutes to bake.
Beat 3 ounces of butter to a cream; Add 1 pound and a half of flour, 3 ounces of moist sugar, one ounce of sifted sugar, one ounce of candied peel, cut into thin strips, two or three drops of essence of lemon, and mix in one pound of treacle, slightly warmed, to make a smooth, firm paste. Roll out on a floured pastry board, cut it into strips, about 3 inches long and one broad, and bake on a butter tin, in a slow oven. Store in a closely covered tin box. Time to bake, half an hour.
Beat 3 ounces of butter to a cream. Mix it with 6 ounces of flour, 2 ounces of sugar, a dessert spoonful of caraway seeds, and a dessert spoonful of powdered ginger. Stir 3 ounces of treacle into half a pint of new milk, make the whole into a paste, and bake on butter tins in round cakes or fingers. Stick on the cakes a little candy peel, and cut into strips. Time, about half an hour to bake.
Mix thoroughly, one ounce and a half of ginger in one pound and a half of flour; Add 1 pound and a quarter of sugar, and two ounces of candy peel, cut very fine. Melt together half a pound of butter, and a quarter of a pound of the best treacle. Sturdies into the flour etc, flavor with three drops of essence of lemon, or more, if liked, and make the mixture into a smooth, firm paste, with three eggs, well beaten. Roll out on a floured board, and cut the paste into fingers. Bake in a good oven for 10 minutes. Store in a closely covered tin box. Change
Rub the rinds of two large, or three small lemons, upon two or three large lumps of sugar, till all the yellow part is taken off. Beat the sugar to a powder, mix it with a pound of flour, and add half an ounce of ground ginger, and a quarter of an ounce of cayenne pepper. Put half a pound of butter into a jar near the fire, with half a pound of treacle. When the butter is melted, stir into it the strained juice of the lemon, mixed with a glass of Brandy. Mix all with the flour etc, and bacon round cakes, or fingers, on buttered tins in a moderate oven. Time, 3/4 of an hour to bake.
Put 6 ounces of butter into a jar near the fire, with one pound of the best treacle. Let the butter melt, then add 2 ounces of candied lemon, cut into narrow strips, half an ounce of powder ginger, half an ounce of caraway seeds, five eggs, well beaten, and as much flour as will make a stiff batter. Beat it well for some minutes, till it is quite smooth and light, put it into a well buttered tin, about 2 inches deep, and bake in a slow oven 3/4 of an hour. When baked, let the loaf remaining little while in the tin before turning out.
Rub half a pound a fresh butter into two pounds of flour; add a pinch of salt, a tablespoon full of baking powder, and one ounce of ground ginger. Stir in two pounds of warm treacle. Bake immediately, in a buttered tin, in a slow oven, for one hour and a half.
Put 2 pounds of treacle into a jar near the fire, with two ounces of butter, 1/4 of an ounce of carbonate of soda, previously dissolved in a very little milk, and strained, and four ounces of moist sugar. Mix an ounce of powdered ginger, and one small nutmeg grated, with about 3 pounds of flour. When the butter is melted, stir the treacle into the flour, add water to moisten it, and baking a well buttered, shallow tin, in a slow oven, for one hour and a half.
(an Edinburgh recipe) mix half a pound of moist sugar, and two ounces of powdered ginger, with one pound of fine flour. Put half a pound of fresh butter, and a half pound of treacle, into a jar near the fire. When the butter is melted, mix it with the flour while warm, and spread the mixture thinly on buttered tins. Market in squares before baking, and as soon as the gingerbread is baked enough, separated at the marks before it has time to harden. Time, 10 or 15 minutes to bake.
Melt together 3/4 of a pound of treacle, a quarter of a pound of honey, and half a pound of fresh butter. Mix 1 pound of flour with two ounces of candy lemon, chopped small, one ounce of powdered ginger, and half a teaspoon full of powdered cinnamon. Beat all well together, and bacon well buttered shallow tins, in a moderate oven. Time, about one hour to bake.
It is well to make the paste for these nuts an hour or two before baking them, and put it in a cool place. Rub 3 ounces of butter into one pound of flour; Add the finely chopped rind and juice of half a lemon, and a dessert spoonful of ground ginger. Put a tablespoon full of honey into a quarter of a pound of treacle. Let them melt over the fire for a few minutes, stirring them well together, then mix them into the other ingredients. Roll the paste on a floured board to the thickness of 1/4 of an inch. Stamp it into small round cakes and bake on tins in a good oven till crisp.
Chop half a pound of candied orange peel very finely, and mix it with one ounce of ground ginger, one nutmeg, grated, 3/4 of a pound of moist sugar, and two pounds and a quarter of flour. Melt 3/4 of a pound of butter in a pound and 3/4 of treacle; stir this well into the rest, and let it let all stand in a cool place for two or three hours. Roll the paste out on a floured board to the thickness of 1/4 of an inch, cut it into fingers, and bake on a buttered tin, leaving a little distance between each finger. Beat the yolk of an egg with a little milk, and brush the gingerbread over with it both before and after putting it into the oven. Time to bake, 15 minutes.
Rub half a pound of butter and half a pound of fresh lard into four pounds of oatmeal, or flour and oatmeal mixed. Add half a pound of brown sugar and an ounce of ground ginger. Mix 3 pounds and a half of treacle with a cup full of new milk; stir these into the oatmeal etc, to make a stiff paste, bake in a moderate oven, either in oil tins or dripping-tins till brightly browned. About 20 minutes if baked in Patty pans and one hour and a half in large dishes.
Pound thoroughly in a mortar 2 ounces of coriander seed, 2 ounces of caraway seed, 2 ounces of ground ginger, half an ounce of grated nutmeg, half an ounce of cloves, 3/4 of an ounce of fennel seed, and 3/4 of an ounce of aniseed. Keep the powder in a bottle closely court. To make ginger bread, these all two pounds of sugar in a pint of water, and make up into a paste with a quarter war turn of flour and an ounce of the powder. The gingerbread may be baked either in a mold or in small tins.
Rub about one ounce of butter or good beef dripping into one pound of flour; Add a teaspoon full of ground ginger, a heaped teaspoon full of baking powder, and sufficient treacle warmed in a tablespoon full of milk to make a light smooth paste. Pour into a butter mold, and boil for two hours. Served with treacle sauce.
Great 6 ounces of stale bread very finely. Mix it with three ounces of flour and 6 ounces of finely shredded beef suet. Add a teaspoon full of powdered ginger, a teaspoon full of baking powder, and two or three drops of almond or lemon flavoring. Make up into a smooth paste with half a pound of treacle, slightly warmed. Pour into a buttered mold, and boil for two hours.
Whisk well two fresh eggs, and add gradually half a pound of sifted loaf sugar, half an ounce of ground ginger, and half a pound of fine flour. A little water may be added if the pace is too stiff. Bake in round cakes for 15 minutes on a butter tin.
Mix half an ounce of carbonate of soda, perfectly free from lumps, with two pounds of flour; add 6 ounces of brown sugar, 2 ounces of powdered ginger, an half an ounce of ground caraway seed. Melt half a pound of fresh butter in two pounds of treacle. Mix this gradually with the flour dash it must not be hot, or the gingerbread will be heavy dash and add, last of all, three well beaten egg. Half fill shallow tins, well buttered, with the mixture, and bake in a moderate oven. Brushed the gingerbread over with the yolk of an egg, mixed with a little milk, before it is put into the oven, and again two or three minutes before it is taken out. Time to bake, an hour and a half.
Rub 3 ounces of fresh butter into half a pound of flour; Add a pinch of salt, four tablespoonfuls of sifted loaf sugar, the finely chopped rind of a small lemon, half a nutmeg, grated, and as much carbonate of soda as will lie on a 6 pence, dissolved in half a cup full of lukewarm milk. Mix all together to a smooth, firm batter, roll it out on a floured board, stamp it into rounds with the top of a wine glass, and big immediately in a moderate oven. Time to bake, 1/4 of an hour.
Cut into very thin slices 4 ounces of candied lemon, orange, and citron. Mix them with an ounce of ground ginger, half an ounce of coriander seed, and half an ounce of caraway seed. Stir these into 1 pound of treacle, and add as much flour as will make a smooth paste. Drop from the end of a knife upon oven tins, and baking a brisk oven. This gingerbread will keep some time if, if kept closely covered in tin boxes. Time, 10 or 15 minutes to bake.
Mix half a pound of flour with two tablespoonfuls of moist sugar. Add a pinch of salt, a dessert spoonful of ground ginger, and a pinch of cayenne. Make into a paste with four ounces of treacle and a tablespoon full of milk. Bake in a moderate oven, on a butter tin, in small round cakes, till crisp – from 15 to 20 minutes.
Mix 2 cup fulls of sifted sugar with two cup fulls of butter, melted, but not oiled. Add three well beaten eggs, three cup full of treacle, four heaped cup fulls of flour, a tablespoon full of ground ginger, a tablespoon full of dissolved saleratus, in a cup full of new milk. When it’s early and smoothly mixed, pour into a buttered mold, and bake in a moderate oven. Their preferred, the mixture may be baked in Patty pants period time to bake, 1/4 of an hour in small pans, an hour and a half in a mold.
Put a small tea cup full of water into a saucepan, and stir well in it over a slow fire, 3/4 of a pound of pounded sugar and four ounces of butter until they are dissolved; then work the mixture into one pound of good dry flour spiced with powdered ginger, cinnamon, and cloves – 2 ounces of ginger, to half an ounce of cinnamon and cloves mixed. Bake contents, either in nuts or cakes. Time, about 1/4 of an hour.
OVEN 375 – 12×8-INCH CAKE
Combine all ingredients in a large mixer bowl. Blend at low speed of mixer; beat 3 minutes at medium speed. Pour batter into a greased and floured 12×8-inch pan. Bake at 375 for 30 to 35 minutes. Cool; frost. Store in refrigerator.
Combine 1 package Pillsbury Vanilla Frost & Fill Frosting Mix and 1 cup ice cold root beer in a mixer bowl; blend well. Beat until thick and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes, increasing mixer speed slowly as frosting begins to thicken.
Tip: Cake may be baked in two 8-inch round layers at 375 for 20 to 25 minutes.
Convert all of the measures to grams. Multiply everything by 81/96 to scale from 12×8 to 9×9. Sub in white lily self raising flour. Eliminate salt, and cut baking powder to 1/2 teaspoon. Use 1 stick of butter and a pound of confectioner’s sugar with 1/4 cup of root beer for frosting. Grease and sugar (not flour) the pan.
Wisconsin Energy has an archive of their christmas cookie cookbooks going back to 1932.
Some time in 2018, I was watching Great British Bake Off (Season 3 or Beginnings if you are in the US) and Cat Dresser announced she was making Lady of Arundel rolls. She was super excited to tell everyone about her 1635 recipe, and Paul was very dismissive, like of course everyone has heard of that.
That was a life changing event for me. I found a defunct blog with the recipe and a sample bake and I went and made my own. Later, I found a copy of the actual recipe book online. There’s also 2 “gingerbread” recipes in there, one of which I’ve made. This is the recipe:
“Take a bushel of fine wheat- flour, twenty eggs, three pound of fresh butter; then take as much salt and barm as to the ordinary manchet ; temper it together with new milk pretty hot, then let it lie the space of half an hour to rise, so you may work it up into bread, and bake it, let not your oven be too hot.”
Elizabeth Grey
Vague directions are vague. Luckily, history of bread posted a scaled down recipe which I used. As always, I didn’t follow it exactly.
I had a bit of butter and I cut it in half. 2 29g chunks. OK, 4 extra gram of butter it is. I also didn’t start prepping until later, so I didn’t want to take the time to let the egg and milk get to room temperature. So I melted the butter and added it to the milk and egg.
Mix the dry ingredients (salt on bottom, yeast on top), then mix the wet ingredients together. Then knead everything together until all the flour is incorporated off of the bottom of the stand mixer bowl.
Quick note on the flour. This is stone ground whole wheat Marquis from Barton Springs Mill. Normally I prefer whole wheat or high extraction flour for older recipes, but a Manchet is normally made with “twice bolted” (or seived) flour, which is probably close to our modern white flour. Marquis is a bit low gluten for a bread, but it turned out OK.
And while I knew this dough was a bit slack or sticky, I didn’t realize that it would weld to the peel and I’d end up destroying the shape and knocking the air out trying to get it on the baking surface (I normally cook bread directly on a pizza stone). Well, 50 minutes at 350 (I have a slow electric oven that always needs extra time, 45 should be OK) anyway and we’ll see what we get.
As mentioned, I knocked some air out, but the bake came out OK. Bit denser because of the peel incident, but it’s a remarkably soft loaf with very nice taste.
Mix flour and lard in food processor until incorporated. Add the rest of ingredients and mix until it just comes together. Shape and cut (I made a tablet and cut it into 12 squarish biscuits). Bake for 15 minutes at 450.
Some time ago, Gastro Obscura wrote an article on the sifter, which is a front end to a cookbook database. If you are interested in tracking recipes over history, you can search on a term and find what cookbooks it was used in and when. The author did not know that “Wig” (or “Wygge” or “Wigg”) was a term for a kind of bun. Being that guy, I felt compelled to point that out, since I had made wiggs and time or two before. I’d even made them with ginger, because ginger is my thing. A correction was made and I spent a day or two just looking at the article in a bemused sort of way. I felt legit.
Now, when I make Wiggs, I treat them like a risen dough. Townsend made them and he treated the rise more like a resting period, than a full rise. Not being one to argue with a serious 18th century reenactor, I decided to try his method. I searched up recipes, and got the following.
To make wigs.
Take 2 pounds and a half of flour, dry it before the fire, and when cold rub in a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, and 6 ounces of sugar; Mix half a pint of yeast that is not bitter, with warm milk, put this to the flour with some caraway seeds; Mix it to all together to a light dough, set it before the fire to rise, then make into what shape you please; Bake them in a slack oven.
You may have allspice beat fine, instead of carraways, if you please.
To make wigs.
Take a quarter of a Peck of flour, rub into it 3/4 of a pound of butter, something more than half a pound of sugar, a little nutmeg and ginger grated, three eggs well beaten; Put to them half a mutchkin of thick barm, and a glass of Brandy, make a hole in your flower and pour it all in, with as much warm milk as will make it a in a light paste; Let it stand before the fire to rise half an hour, then make it into a dozen and a half of weeks. Bake them half an hour.
Wigs,
Take 3 pounds of well dried flour, one nutmeg, a little mace and salt, and almost half a pound of caraway comfits; mix these well together, and melt half a pound of butter in a pint of sweet thick cream, 6 spoonfuls of good sack, 4 yolks and three whites of eggs, and near a pint of good light yeast; work these well together, and cover it, and set it down to the fire to rise; then let them rest, and laid the remainder, the half pound of caraway comfits on top of the week, and put them up on papers well floured and ride, and let them have as quick an oven as for tarts.
The Carolina Housewife also had Wigg recipes, but we’re not going to discuss them. It’s from 1847 and they were more like pancakes or crumpets.
Townsend has facsimiles of all three books for sale if you want a paper copy. Having reviewed the recipes, I decide to go from Shackleford’s. I don’t use historical methods for baking, so I decided to take a look at how this would look as a modern recipe.
I add salt because I never keep salt in the house and most 18th century recipes assume salted butter. If they want unsalted, they will explicitly tell you to wash the butter. For spicing, you had a choice of caraway in either seeds or comfits – sugar coated seeds, or nutmeg and ginger mixed. I did 7g Caraway seeds on a whim, but I knew that would be a very strong taste. Last decision was what flour to use. Bread flour will give a roll type of structure, pastry flour will give a more cookie or cake texture and AP flour will be somewhere in the middle. I went with whole wheat pastry flour.
Mix dry ingredients in mixing bowl. Melt butter and add to milk. Add to dry ingredients and mix until dough comes together. Since this uses whole pastry flour, do not expect it to feel like a bread dough.
After resting the dough, shape into 72g (2.5 oz.) balls and cut into quarters. The cut is what makes a Wigg a Wigg, since the name is derived from Middle Dutch (and Middle English) “wegge” or “wedge”.
After shaping, pre-heat the oven to 325.
If you are used to bread making, you can see there is not a lot of change during the rest periods, unlike after a rise. They taste find if you want to go with a full rise. After another rest, into the oven and give them about 30 minutes.
Texture and taste was much more cake-like than usual, and there was a strong element of caraway.
Newsweek linked a Tiktok video of a man making Roman fries with ketchup.
The sauce on the fries is Garum with wine and starch as a thickener. Max Miller has done a show on garum, but silk road gourmet has also made their own garum using old Roman methods and they have thoughts about the boiling fish method of Garum creation that Max uses.
It turns out there is a direct line from garum to ketchup. And that line involves a lot of change.
First, let’s take a look at the definition of ketchup. Searching google books gives the first result for Ketchup in English as The Young Cook’s Monitor (1683) which tells us “if you have no ketchup, then put in one anchovy” So, maybe there’s something to this idea that it’s like garum.
Dictionnaire des marchandises (1797)
This is a German to 11 other languages dictionary for commerce. Very interesting read, but it gives the translation of Ketchup as: “Schampignonsaft mit Salz und Gewuerzen” (mushroom juice with salt and spices).
The London Medical Dictionary (1809) offers the following definition
“Ketchup is prepared from mushrooms or walnuts, with the addition of salt, and generally some spice. These two fluids are infinitely diversified with the flavor of shalot, the warmth and pungency of cayenne pepper vinegar, the taste of anchovies, etc.; and sold in many forms with a great variety of names, according to the fancy of Mr. Burges and others. They are not so injurious if they do not tempt the appetite too far, and increased the load beyond the powers of the stomach to digest. Mushrooms we have added to the list, which, though in a slight degree nourishing, are chiefly taken for their flavor.”
“Ketchup. The juice of certain vegetables strongly salted and spiced, so as to be used as sauce; Or a simple sauce made without the natural juice as a substitute for true ketchup. The following are the principle varieties:
Cucumber, marine, mushroom, oyster, pontac, tomato, walnut.”
They have a definition for Indian Ketchup. It’s Soy Sauce.
By this point, I feel like I’ve established that prior to 1800, Ketchup is nothing like what we call Ketchup, and it seems the old Ketchups are descended from Garum.
The New Art of Cookery … Being a Complete Guide to All Housekeepers, Etc (1792)
“Mushroom ketchup.
“Take a bushel of the large flaps of mushrooms gathered dry and bruise them with your hands; Put some at the bottom of an earthen pan, strew some salt over them, then mushrooms, then salt, till you have done; put in half an ounce of beaten cloves and mace, the same of allspice, and let them stand five or six days; Stir them up everyday; Then tie a paper over them, and bake them for four hours in a slow oven; when so done, strain them through a cloth to get all the liquor out, and let the liquor stand to settle; Then pour it clear from the settlings; To every gallon of liquor, add a quart of red wine, and if not salt enough, a little salt, a race of ginger cut small, half an ounce of cloves and Mace, and boil it till about 1/3 list reduced; Then strain it through a sieve into a pan; The next day pour it from the settlings, and bottle it for use; But mind to cork it tight.”
Well, two things. In 1811 (that’s the first reference I find anyway), they started using tomatoes for Ketchup. Later, they really cut back the spices and added sugar. Now, modern ketchup is very popular (enough so that Malcolm Gladwell wrote a pretty long article on it) and it has a balance of flavors. Older Ketchups do not have a balance of flavors, as they are heavily spiced and don’t have any sugar.
Here’s a recipe from allrecipes (first hit on a search for “tomato ketchup recipe”)
The American Home Cook Book – 1864
“Tomato ketchup – boil half a bushel of tomatoes until soft – force them through a fine sieve, and put a quart of vinegar, one pint of salt, 2 ounces of cloves, 2 ounces of allspice, 1 1/2 ounces of cayenne pepper, one tablespoon full of pepper, two heads of garlic skinned; mix together and boil three hours, then bottle with being strained.”
The method is more or less the same, and converting to the same amount as our modern recipe gives us:
Notice the two biggest differences are no sugar (even the vinegar amounts are close) and LOTS more spices. Even comparing old style tomato Ketchup to the modern stuff is going to give a much less sweet sauce, never mind the Cayenne Pepper and other spices in very heavy amounts. Garum is going to be like that, only more so.
In short, yes, thickened garum and wine sauce is “like ketchup” only in a very vague sense.
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