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Chili Sauce

A tomato-based sauce with peppers, onions, spices, sugar, vinegar, and salt, simmered for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Chili Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Seal and skin the tomatoes.

  2. Chop the onions and peppers finely.

Cook

  1. Combine all ingredients in a pot.

  2. Boil slowly for 3 to 4 hours.

Bottle

  1. Bottle the sauce while hot.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  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

Tomatoes
Forms the main body and liquid base of the sauce as it cooks down.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the sweetness and tang of the sauce.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and rounds out the acidity while the sauce simmers.
Onions
Provides a savory base and bulk that softens into the sauce.
Green peppers
Contributes fresh, vegetal flavor and bulk to the sauce.
Ground cinnamon
Adds warm aromatic spice notes that deepen the sauce's flavor.

The step that matters

Boil slowly for 3 to 4 hours. A long, gentle simmer lets water evaporate so the sauce thickens and the vinegar mellows. A fast, hard boil can scorch the sugar and vegetables on the bottom of the pot, leaving a bitter taste.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, allspice, clove, cinnamon, sugar, 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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Tomato 14Green Tomato 4Raw 3Sweet 3 See all 392 →

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