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Pontac Catsup for Fish

Pontac Catsup for Fish is a traditional British recipe, based on Eliza Acton's recipe of 1845, for a classic Victorian store sauce made from elderberry vinegar boiled with salt, ginger, mace, black peppercorns, cloves and shallots that's bottled with the spices and which is used to flavour fish sauces. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic British version of: Pontac Catsup for Fish.

prep time

20 minutes

cook time

45 minutes

Total Time:

65 minutes

Additional Time:

(+1 month maturing)

Makes:

2 bottles

Rating:

Tags : Wild FoodSauce RecipesVegetarian RecipesSpice RecipesBritish Recipes

This is a traditional British recipe redacted from Eliza Acton's 1845 volume Modern Cookery, the first classic Victorian cookbook.

Original Recipe

PONTAC CATSUP FOR FISH.

     On one pint of ripe elderberries stripped from the stalks, pour three quarters of a pint of boiling vinegar, and let it stand in a cool oven all night; the next day strain off the liquid without pressure, and boil it for five minutes with a half-teaspoonful of salt, a small race of ginger, a blade of mace, forty corns of pepper, twelve cloves and four eschalots. Bottle it with the spice when it is quite cold.

Modern Redaction

Ingredients:

600ml ripe elderberries, stripped from their stalks with the tines of a fork
450ml boiling vinegar
1/2 tsp sea salt
thumb-sized piece of ginger, sliced and lightly bruised
1 blade of mace
40 black peppercorns
12 cloves
4 shallots, peeled and halved

Method:

Strip the elderberries cleanly from their stalks (best done by pulling with the tines of a fork. Place the elderberries in a heat-proof bowl and pour over the boiling vinegar. Set aside to cool and infuse over night then pour into a fine-meshed sieve lined with a double layer of muslin.

Set aside to allow the liquid to drain naturally (do not press down on the fruit) then pour the liquid into a saucepan, add the salt, ginger, mace, black peppercorns, cloves and shallots.

Bring to a boil and continue boiling for 5 minutes then take off the heat. Allow to cool and pour into washed and sterilized bottles (divide the spices between them).

Stopper these securely then process in a boiling water bath for 40 minutes before storing. Allow to mature for at least 1 month before use.

Find more Eliza Acton Recipes Here and more Traditional Victorian Recipes Here.