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Sauce

Chili Sauce

A sweet and spicy tomato-based sauce with onions, peppers, celery, vinegar, sugar, and spices, simmered for 2 to 3 hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and celery 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 ↓

Chili Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the tomatoes, onions, and red peppers.

  2. Put them into a kettle with the finely chopped celery.

Cook

  1. Add the vinegar, sugar, and spices.

  2. Cook slowly for 2 to 3 hours.

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. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  5. Mustard + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,581 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Provide the bulk and liquid that form the bbulk of the sauce.
Onions
Add sweetness and aromatic depth as they soften during long cooking.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavor and helps keep the sauce preserved.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the vinegar.
Mustard seed
Contributes pungent, slightly bitter flavor that deepens during cooking.

The step that matters

Cook slowly for 2 to 3 hours. Low, gradual heat lets water evaporate so the sauce thickens without scorching on the bottom. Stirring keeps sugars from burning and lets the flavors meld.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, mustard, vinegar, cinnamon, sugar, pepper, celery):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, mustard, vinegar, cinnamon, sugar, pepper, celery. 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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