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Sauce

Indian Sauce

A tangy apple and vinegar sauce with peppers, onions, ginger, and mustard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,259 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Indian Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine apples, salt, vinegar, green pepper, brown sugar, and onions in a large pot.

  2. Boil covered for 1 hour, then strain the mixture.

  3. Stir in ground ginger and mustard mixed with ½ cup reserved vinegar, then boil for an additional 30 minutes.

  4. Bottle the sauce.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pepper + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,800 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Onion + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,595 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Apples
Break down into pulp, adding body and natural sweetness to the sauce.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that defines the sauce and helps preserve it.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and depth that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Onions
Contribute savory flavor and body as they soften during the long boil.
Mustard
Adds pungency and a sharp, savory bite to the finished sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the ginger and mustard mixture. Ground spices and mustard are added after the long boil so their aromas are not lost to extended cooking. Mixing the mustard with vinegar first helps it disperse evenly instead of clumping in the pot.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, pepper, sugar, onion, ginger, mustard):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Mangofits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, pepper, sugar, onion, ginger, mustard. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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