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Chili Sauce

A tomato-based sauce with peppers, onions, garlic, salt, sugar, vinegar, celery, cloves, cinnamon, and allspice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Chili Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the green and red peppers and onions very finely.

  2. Peel and chop the tomatoes.

Cook

  1. Combine all ingredients in a large pot.

  2. Boil for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

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. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Tomato + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,076 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

Tomatoes
Provide the bulk, moisture and acidity that form the body of the sauce.
Onions
Add savory sweetness and aroma that build the sauce's base flavor.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that preserves the sauce and balances its sweetness.
Sugar
Balances the acidity of the vinegar and tomatoes and aids browning as the sauce reduces.
Green and red peppers
Contribute vegetal flavor and bulk to the sauce's texture.

The step that matters

Boil for 2 hours, stirring occasionally. Long simmering reduces the liquid and softens the chopped vegetables into a thick sauce. Occasional stirring prevents sugars and solids from scorching on the bottom of the pot.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cuminfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, onion, garlic, sugar, vinegar, 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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