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Sauce

Bordeaux Sauce

A sauce made from cabbage, green tomatoes, onions, sugar, spices, mustard seed, salt, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Bordeaux Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Drain the juice from the chopped green tomatoes.

  2. In a large pot, combine all ingredients.

  3. Mix well and bring to a boil.

  4. Boil for 20 minutes.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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 and tart, fruity base of the sauce.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that gives the sauce its tang and helps preserve it.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity and spices.
Onions
Add savoury depth and aroma as they soften during cooking.
Cabbage
Adds bulk and soft texture as it cooks down.
White mustard seed
Contributes a sharp, pungent flavour that stands out in the sauce.

The step that matters

Mix well and bring to a boil. Thorough stirring distributes the sugar and chopped vegetables evenly. Without it, the thick mixture can settle and scorch on the base of the pot before it heats through.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, tomato, sugar, celery, pepper, allspice, clove):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, tomato, sugar, celery, pepper, allspice, clove. 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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