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Sauce

Pepper Sauce

A pickled pepper sauce made with hot peppers, cabbage, celery, mustard seed, vinegar, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Pepper Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the cabbage and celery.

  2. Sprinkle the chopped vegetables with coarse sea salt.

Make the sauce

  1. Add the mustard seed.

  2. Cover the mixture with cold vinegar.

  3. Let it sit until ready to use.

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.

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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + cabbagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Hot peppers
Provide the heat and main pepper flavor of the sauce.
Cabbage
Adds bulk and a mild, crisp texture to the sauce.
Celery
Adds a fresh, savory vegetable flavor and extra crunch.
Mustard seed
Adds a sharp, pungent flavor that complements the peppers.
Cold vinegar
Provides acidity that sharpens flavor and preserves the sauce.

The step that matters

Let it sit until ready to use. Resting lets the vinegar soak into the chopped vegetables and peppers, mellowing harsh sharpness and blending the flavors together over time.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Celerythe original
  4. Allspicefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, cabbage, mustard, 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.

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