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Sauce

A Nice Sauce for Meats or Fish

A sauce made from onions, green peppers, tomatoes, and salt, simmered until thickened.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Keokuk (Iowa). Westminster Presbyterian church · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

A Nice Sauce for Meats or Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the onions, peppers, and tomatoes finely.

  2. Combine the chopped vegetables with the salt.

Cook and bottle

  1. Stew the mixture slowly for several hours until it thickens.

  2. Put the hot sauce into bottles and seal while hot.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

72Calories
2 gProtein
0 gFat
16 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
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 Keokuk (Iowa). Westminster Presbyterian church. 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. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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

Tomatoes
Provide the bulk of the liquid and body that cooks down into the sauce.
Onions
Add savoury sweetness and aroma as they soften during the long stew.
Green peppers
Contribute fresh, slightly bitter flavour and some body to the sauce.
Fine salt
Draws moisture from the vegetables and seasons the sauce throughout.

The step that matters

Stewing slowly until thickened. Long, gentle cooking lets water evaporate and the vegetables break down, which thickens the sauce and concentrates its flavour. Too little time leaves it thin and watery.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, tomato. 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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