Name: Costa Del Sol Barbeque Sauce
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Yield: 32 servings
Ingredients: 1 1/2 cups ketchup; 7 ounces brown sugar; 1/2 red onion, finely chopped; 1/4 cup honey; 3 1/2 fluid ounces red wine vinegar; 2 ounces butter; 1/2 small red chile pepper, finely chopped, or to taste; 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped; 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper; 1/2 teaspoon paprika; 1/2 teaspoon salt; 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Why it works: Ketchup and sugar match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 260 recipes mention both. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Ketchup + sugartop 8% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together260 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Red wine + vinegartop 10% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together575 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Honey + vinegartop 10% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together1,586 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Honey + red winetop 13% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together112 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ketchup, sugar, honey, red wine, vinegar, butter, pepper):

Capsicumbetter flavor fit
Mustardbetter flavor fit
Shallotbetter flavor fit
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ketchup, sugar, honey, red wine, vinegar, butter, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

Costa Del Sol Barbeque Sauce