Name: Tomato Chili Sauce
Ingredients: 9 ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped; 2 red peppers, chopped; 1 onion, finely chopped; 1 cup vinegar; 2 tablespoons brown sugar; 1 tablespoon salt; 1 teaspoon ground ginger; 1 teaspoon ground cloves; 1 teaspoon ground allspice

Why it works: Clove and allspice 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 ↓

Tomato Chili Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Peel and chop the tomatoes.
Chop the red peppers and onion finely.

Cook

In a pot, combine the tomatoes, red peppers, onion, vinegar, brown sugar, salt, ginger, cloves, and allspice.
Stir well and bring to a simmer.
Cook for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

Cool and store

Let cool and store in a jar.
Refrigerate after opening.

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.

Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,874 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,038 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,620 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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: Provide the main body and liquid base of the sauce.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that gives the sauce its tang and helps preserve it.
Brown sugar: Adds sweetness that balances the acidity and the spices.
Red peppers: Add sweetness, color, and body as they soften during cooking.
Onion: Adds savory depth and body as it softens into the sauce.

The step that matters

Cook for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Long, gentle simmering lets the tomatoes and peppers break down and the liquid reduce into a thick sauce. Stirring prevents scorching on the bottom of the pot as sugars concentrate.

Swap the onion

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

Capsicumfits better
Carrotfits better
Mustardfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, vinegar, sugar, ginger, clove, allspice. 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 Chili Sauce