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Miss Westgate, Jacksonville, Ill

A thick tomato and pepper sauce flavored with cinnamon, cloves, allspice, sugar, vinegar, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Des Moines. Plymouth church. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Miss Westgate, Jacksonville, Ill

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Chop eighteen ripe tomatoes, one onion, and three green peppers very finely.

  2. Combine the chopped vegetables with one cup of sugar, two and a half cups of vinegar, two teaspoons of salt, one teaspoon each of cinnamon, cloves, and allspice.

  3. Cook until thick as ketchup, but do not strain.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

99Calories
1 gProtein
0 gFat
25 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)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 Des Moines. Plymouth church. [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. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Cinnamon + oniontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Sugar + oniontop 36% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,747 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes (in the method)
Form the bulk of the sauce and supply moisture that cooks down into a thick texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the acidity of the vinegar.
Vinegar (in the method)
Provides acidity that sharpens the flavor and helps preserve the sauce.

The step that matters

Cook until thick as ketchup, but do not strain. The sauce thickens only as its water evaporates during long simmering. Stopping too early leaves it thin, while the chopped vegetables must stay unstrained so the sauce keeps its body and texture.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cinnamon):

  1. Sweet potatofits better
  2. Arrowrootfits better
  3. Beetrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cinnamon. 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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