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Sauce

Bordeaux Sauce

A cabbage and tomato sauce with spices, mustard seed, salt, sugar, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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. Mix all ingredients together in a large pot.

  2. Boil for 15 to 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. Turmeric + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Allspice + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Turmeric + allspicetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together629 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
Forms the bulk of the relish, giving body and a crisp, fibrous texture.
Green tomatoes
Provide tartness and body, helping the mixture thicken as it cooks.
Onions
Add savory depth and sweetness that mellows during boiling.
Mustard seed
Contributes sharp pungency that mellows as the sauce cooks.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the vinegar's acidity.
Vinegar
Supplies acidity that sharpens flavor and helps preserve the sauce.

The step that matters

Boil for 15 to 20 minutes. Boiling softens the cut vegetables and blends the spices and vinegar into the sauce. Boiling too briefly leaves the vegetables raw and the flavors harsh and separate, while overcooking can turn them mushy and dull.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, onion, turmeric, allspice, pepper, ginger, clove):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, onion, turmeric, allspice, pepper, ginger, 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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