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Sauce

Governor Sauce

A sauce made from green tomatoes, potato onions, spices, and mustard, simmered until soft.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Governor Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice green tomatoes and potato onions in alternate layers.

  2. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt and let stand overnight.

  3. Pour off the liquid.

Cook

  1. Add white wine vinegar to cover the vegetables.

  2. Stir in brown sugar, cloves, cinnamon, mace, mustard, and horseradishes.

  3. Boil until soft.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 of the sauce and break down into a soft, thick texture when boiled.
Potato onions
Add savory body and sweetness that softens during long cooking.
White wine vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the sugar and helps preserve the sauce.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a deeper, caramel-like flavor as it dissolves and cooks.
Horseradishes
Contribute sharp pungency that mellows during cooking.

The step that matters

Let the vegetables stand overnight in salt, then drain. Salting draws water out of the sliced tomatoes and onions through osmosis. Pouring off that liquid before cooking leaves firmer pieces and a thicker final sauce.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, potato, white wine, vinegar, sugar, clove, cinnamon. 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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