Skip to main content
Main

Chili Sauce

A tomato-based sauce with onions, peppers, and spices, simmered for two hours until thick.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Chicago. Bethany union church. Woman's society. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Chili Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the onions and peppers finely.

Cook the sauce

  1. Add the chopped onions and peppers to the tomatoes and cook for one hour.

  2. Add one and one-half tablespoons of salt, one and one-half cups of vinegar, one and one-half cups of sugar (or sweeten to taste), one and one-half teaspoons of cinnamon, one teaspoon of cloves, one teaspoon of allspice, and one-fourth teaspoon of ginger.

  3. Cook for an hour longer, or until thick.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

122Calories
2 gProtein
1 gFat
29 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Allspice1 tsp ground (1.9g)5
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
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.

By Chicago. Bethany union church. Woman's society. [from old catalog]. 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. See the original page.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 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

Onions
Soften and break down as they cook, adding sweetness and body to the sauce.
Peppers
Break down during cooking, adding savory flavor and body to the sauce.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the sauce its tang and balances the sweetness.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that rounds out the acidity and spice.

The step that matters

Cook for an hour longer, or until thick. Long simmering evaporates water and concentrates the flavors, so the sauce thickens. Stopping early leaves it thin and watery, while cooking too long can scorch the bottom of the pot.

Swap the onion

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

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

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

More chili sauce recipes

Tomato 14Green Tomato 4Raw 3Sweet 3 See all 392 →

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes