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Chili Sauce

A tomato-based sauce with peppers, onions, sugar, vinegar, and spices, simmered until thick.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Chili Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. In a large pot, combine the chopped tomatoes, red peppers, and onions.

  2. Add salt, sugar, vinegar, ginger, cloves, allspice, and cinnamon.

  3. Cook the mixture over medium heat for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

Finish and bottle

  1. Once thickened, remove from heat and let cool before bottling.

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 + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Provide the main body and liquid that cooks down into the sauce.
Onions
Add savory bulk and sweetness that deepen as they cook down.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the sharpness of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavor and helps preserve the sauce.
Red peppers
Contribute sweet, fresh pepper flavor and color to the sauce.

The step that matters

Cook the mixture over medium heat for 2 hours, stirring occasionally. Long, gentle cooking lets water evaporate so the sauce thickens, while occasional stirring prevents the sugar and tomato solids from scorching on the bottom of the pot.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, sugar, vinegar, ginger, clove, allspice. 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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