Skip to main content
Drink

Pepper Sauce

A pickled pepper sauce made with cabbage, carrots, onions, cucumbers, and various spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Sterrett, Laura C · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 26 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Mustard and radish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 297 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Pepper Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Chop five dozen hot peppers, green or red, three heads of cabbage, and one head of celery.

  2. Sprinkle the chopped vegetables with salt. Add one quarter pound of mustard seed. Cover with cold vinegar.

  3. Slice one peck of green tomatoes, six green peppers, and four onions. Sprinkle a teacup of salt over them and let them stand overnight.

  4. In the morning, pour off the liquid.

Make the tomato mixture

  1. Put the tomatoes in a kettle with enough vinegar to cover them, one cup of brown sugar, one cup of grated horseradish, one tablespoon of cloves, cinnamon, and allspice. Boil until soft. Skim the mixture.

  2. Pack the mixture in jars. Pour the vinegar over the hot mixture while still hot.

Make the cucumber pickles

  1. Wash one peck of very small cucumbers. Put the cucumbers in a stone jar.

  2. Heat water sufficient to cover the pickles until boiling hot. Add alum into the boiling water. Pour the boiling water over the pickles. Repeat the boiling water pour three mornings.

  3. Wash the pickles again. Put the pickles into glass jars, layering with a few pickles, then peppers, whole mustard seed, cinnamon, horse-radish, and green leaves such as peach or grape.

  4. Heat vinegar until boiling. Pour the hot vinegar over the pickles. Seal the jars.

Make the onion and cucumber relish

  1. Put two hundred smallest cucumbers in salt water. Let them stand for twenty-four hours.

  2. Put the cucumbers in two quarts of vinegar. Let the cucumbers get hot.

  3. Take the cucumbers out and put two quarts of small onions into the same vinegar. Allow the onions to boil until a little tender.

  4. Take two quarts of fresh vinegar, one-half pound of mustard, and one teacup of olive oil. Work the oil and mustard together into a cream. Stir the cream into the vinegar. Let the mixture come to a boil. Mix thoroughly.

  5. Put the mixture into the cucumbers and onions. Let them stand on the back of the stove where they will keep warm for twenty-four hours. Bottle for use.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

275Calories
4 gProtein
15 gFat
36 gCarbs

Counts 11 of 13 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 11 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Cucumber1/2 cup sliced (52g)16
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Seednot in our table0
Waternot in our table0

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

By Sterrett, Laura C. 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. Mustard + radishtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together297 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Horse + radishtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together529 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  3. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  5. Mustard + horsetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together201 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage (in the method)
Forms the bulk of the chopped vegetable base, giving the sauce its body and crunch.
Green tomatoes
Supply bulk and tartness that balance the sweetness of the brown sugar.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that softens the sharp bite of the vinegar.
Mustard
Adds pungency and emulsifies with olive oil to thicken the relish cream.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the vegetables and gives the pickles their sharp flavour.

The step that matters

Working the oil and mustard into a cream. Mustard and oil only form a smooth, stable cream when mixed slowly and thoroughly before the vinegar goes in; otherwise the oil separates and the relish looks greasy and uneven.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mustard, sugar, horse, radish, clove, vinegar, pepper):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Cucumberfits better
  3. Broccolifits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, sugar, horse, radish, clove, vinegar, 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.

You might also like

Raspberry VinegarRaspberry Vinegar214 recipesCucumber PicklesCucumber Pickles25 recipesSugar VinegarSugar Vinegar20 recipesVegetable SoupVegetable Soup350 recipes