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Chili Sauce

A tomato-based sauce with onions, sugar, vinegar, cloves, cinnamon, mustard, cayenne, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Chili Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the tomatoes and onions.

Cook and store

  1. In a large pot, combine all ingredients.

  2. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat.

  3. Simmer for one hour, stirring occasionally.

  4. Cool and store in jars.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

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

  4. Cinnamon + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,581 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 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

Tomatoes
Form the bulk of the sauce, providing moisture, body, and acidity as they cook down.
Onions
Add savory depth and body that thickens the sauce as they soften.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar and tomatoes.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and helps preserve it.
Ground cinnamon
Contributes warm aroma and sweet spice notes.
Whole cloves
Contribute pungent aroma that infuses the sauce during simmering.

The step that matters

Simmer for one hour, stirring occasionally. Long simmering evaporates water so the sauce thickens. Sugar and tomato solids can scorch on the bottom of the pot, so regular stirring prevents sticking and burnt flavor.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, sugar, vinegar, clove, cinnamon, mustard, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Horseradishfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, sugar, vinegar, clove, cinnamon, mustard, pepper. 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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