Name: Chunky Taco Sauce for Canning
Ingredients: 8 qts tomatoes, diced and peeled (use plum or roma tomatoes if possible); 1 qt chopped onions; 1 qt chopped sweet peppers; 1 qt chopped celery; 1 qt cider vinegar; 1 cup sugar; 2 cup water; 2 tbsp. brown sugar; ⅓ cup canning salt (not iodized); 1 tbsp whole pickling spice (tie in cloth); 2 tbsp chili powder; 2 – 3 tsp cayenne pepper (more for hot); 1 tbsp garlic powder; 2 tbsp lemon juice; black pepper to taste

Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

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.

Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Tomato + garlictop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,076 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,377 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,431 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

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 and break down into its body during long simmering.
Cider vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and helps keep the sauce stable for canning.
Onions: Add savory depth and aroma as they soften into the sauce.
Sweet peppers: Contribute mild sweetness and body to the chunky texture.
Celery: Adds savory, vegetal flavor and texture to the chunky base.
Chili powder: Provides the main chili flavor and warmth of the sauce.

The step that matters

Pressure processing the filled jars. Tomato-based sauces with vegetables must be processed in a pressure canner at the stated pressure and time, because a boiling-water bath or shortened time may not reach temperatures high enough to kill spoilage microorganisms, making the sealed jars unsafe to store.

Swap the onion

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

Capsicumfits better
Mustardfits better
Cucumberfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, celery, cider, vinegar, sugar, garlic. 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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Plum	1 medium (66g)	30
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Chili	1 tsp (2.7g)	8
Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Cider	not in our table	0
Water	not in our table	0

Chunky Taco Sauce for Canning