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Nigerian Corned Beef Sauce

A spicy sauce made with corned beef, tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, and ginger, simmered in vegetable oil.

From the Wikibooks Cookbook · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

Nigerian Corned Beef Sauce

Timeabout 10 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Heat the vegetable oil in a saucepan.

  2. Add the onions, tomatoes, peppers, garlic, and ginger.

  3. Stir, and fry for about 10 minutes.

  4. Mix in the corned beef and fry for about 10 minutes.

  5. Add salt and seasoning cube to taste, stir, then cover and cook for a few minutes.

  6. Adjust seasoning as needed.

  7. Serve.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

486Calories
30 gProtein
30 gFat
25 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 10 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Beef100g cooked250
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Bell Pepper1 medium (119g)31
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Chili1 tsp (2.7g)8
Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Ginger1 tsp grated fresh (2g)2
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Wikibooks Cookbook.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

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. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Tomato + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,076 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Garlic + gingertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,402 recipes

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

  4. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  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

Corned beef
Provides the main protein and savoury meaty flavour of the sauce.
Tomatoes
Supply moisture and acidity that form the body of the sauce as they cook down.
Onions
Soften and turn sweet during frying, building the base flavour.
Habanero peppers
Add heat and fruity aroma to the sauce.
Garlic
Adds pungent aroma that mellows as it fries.

The step that matters

Fry the onions, tomatoes and peppers until the liquid cooks off. Frying long enough lets the tomato and pepper water evaporate and the onions caramelise slightly, concentrating flavour and thickening the sauce. Stopping early leaves a thin, watery sauce with a raw, sharp taste.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, tomato, pepper, garlic, beef):

  1. Cuminfits better
  2. Oreganofits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, tomato, pepper, garlic, beef. 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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