Hartshorne Catsup for Sea-stores
This is an old English mushroom and anchovy catsup, built on a full gallon of strong stale beer and reduced by half. It comes from Henry Hartshorne's Household Cyclopedia, a public domain source, and it was meant for ship's stores. The anchovies, shallots, mace and cloves give a dark, salty, spiced sauce. The source notes that stronger, staler beer makes better catsup, and a spoonful stirred into melted butter makes a quick fish sauce.
Instructions
Put the beer, anchovies, shallots, mace, cloves, peppercorns, ginger and mushrooms into a large pot. Rub the mushroom flaps to pieces before they go in.
Bring the pot to a simmer and let it cook gently until the liquid has reduced to half its starting volume. Judge this against the original level in the pot, since the source gives no time.
Strain the liquid through a cloth, pressing out what you can, and discard the solids. Let the catsup cool completely before using or storing it.
For a fish sauce, stir a spoonful of the catsup into 1 pound of melted butter.
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