Skip to main content
Main

Banden Sauce

A pickled green tomato and cabbage sauce with brown sugar, celery seed, mustard seed, cloves, pepper, ginger, turmeric, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Martin, Maria Ewing, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Tomato and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,377 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Banden Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Salt 3 gallons green tomatoes and 5 gallons cabbage, all chopped 1 inch, and let stand overnight.

Cook and jar

  1. In the morning, drain, and put in a kettle with 4 pounds brown sugar, 1 ounce each of celery seed, mustard seed, ground cloves, white pepper, white ginger root, and turmeric, and 2 gallons vinegar.

  2. Boil 1 hour, put in jars, and tie up tight or seal.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

135Calories
5 gProtein
1 gFat
30 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Broccoli1 cup chopped (156g)55
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Celery Seed1 stalk (40g)6
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3

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

By Martin, Maria Ewing, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp. 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 + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Cabbage + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,840 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Tomato + cabbagetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together333 recipes

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

  4. Cabbage + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Green tomatoes
Provide the bulk of the sauce and its tart base once cooked down.
Cabbage
Adds body and texture, softening as it simmers in the sauce.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and depth, balancing the sharpness of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Supplies acidity that sharpens flavor and helps preserve the sauce.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Radishfits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, sugar, celery, vinegar. 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesRed CabbageRed Cabbage65 recipes