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Shirley Sauce

A tomato-based sauce with salt, pepper, cayenne, allspice, mustard, vinegar, and olive oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Goff, May Perrin, [from old catalog] ed · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,539 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Shirley Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine four quarts of tomatoes, four spoonfuls of salt, four spoonfuls of black pepper, one-half spoonful cayenne pepper, one-half spoonful of allspice, and three spoonfuls of mustard.

  2. Simmer slowly in one quart of vinegar for three hours.

  3. Bottle when cold.

  4. Put one teaspoonful of olive oil in each bottle just before corking to preserve.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

155Calories
2 gProtein
14 gFat
6 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Chili1 tsp (2.7g)8
Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
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 Goff, May Perrin, [from old catalog] ed. 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. Tomato + olivetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,539 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Mustard + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 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
Form the bulk of the sauce and provide its body and acidity.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavour and helps preserve the sauce.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavour and helps emulsify the sauce.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Cucumberfits better
  3. Eggplantfits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, vinegar, olive. 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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