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Sweet Chilli Sauce

Blend peppers, chillies, tomatoes and garlic together, and cook it all up with sugar and vinegar for an instant chilli hit to serve with your favourite foods.

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Why it works: Tomato and garlic are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 14,075 recipes mention both. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

The recipe

Makes 2 jars
Prep30 min
Cook30 min

Ingredients

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Peel the skinned peppers if needed, then remove the seeds and roughly chop them along with the chillies, tomato, garlic and fresh root ginger.

  2. Put the chopped vegetables and ginger into a pot and add the white wine vinegar.

  3. Bring to a gentle boil over medium heat and simmer for about 10 minutes until the vegetables soften.

  4. Blend the mixture until smooth, then return it to the pot.

  5. Stir in the sugar, salt, black pepper and balsamic vinegar until the sugar dissolves.

  6. Simmer over low-medium heat for about 15 minutes, stirring often, until the sauce thickens slightly.

  7. Meanwhile, wash two jars and their lids and keep them hot in a pan of boiling water for 5 minutes.

  8. Carefully pour the hot sauce into the hot jars, leaving a little headspace, and seal them tightly.

  9. Leave the jars to cool, then store in a cool place or the fridge once opened.

By bbcfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

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.

  1. Tomato + garlictop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together14,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Pepper + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together17,913 recipes

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

  3. Garlic + gingertop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together6,402 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Pepper + gingertop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together6,799 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + garlictop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together27,044 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, tomato, garlic, sugar, white wine, vinegar):

  1. Basilbetter flavor fit
  2. Corianderbetter flavor fit
  3. Thymebetter flavor fit
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, tomato, garlic, sugar, white wine, vinegar. 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).