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Chili Sauce

A tomato-based sauce with spices, vinegar, and sugar, simmered until fragrant and jarred.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Chili Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Scald, skin, and cut the tomatoes into pieces.

  2. Cook the tomatoes until they start to soften.

Make the sauce

  1. Add the salt, mustard seeds, ground cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, whole cloves, black pepper, green peppers, onions, cider vinegar, and brown sugar.

  2. Boil for about 30 minutes or until the spices become fragrant.

  3. Pour into glass jars and seal tightly.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 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

Ripe tomatoes
Form the bulk of the sauce and provide its main body and flavor.
Cider vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and helps preserve the sauce.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the vinegar and spices.
Green peppers
Contribute bulk and a fresh, vegetal bite to the sauce.
Onions
Add savory depth and body as they soften during boiling.

The step that matters

Boil until the spices become fragrant. Spices release their aroma and flavor gradually with heat, so boiling long enough lets them bloom. Stopping too early leaves the sauce tasting flat and raw, while overcooking can make the vinegar taste harsh.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Horseradishfits better
  3. Eggplantfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, mustard, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, pepper. 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.

More chili sauce recipes

Tomato 14Green Tomato 4Raw 3Sweet 3 See all 392 →

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