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Sauce

German Sauce

A fermented cabbage and tomato sauce seasoned with mustard, pepper, cloves, mustard seed, salt, sugar, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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German Sauce

Why it works: Cabbage and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,645 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

German Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the cabbage, tomatoes, and onions together.

  2. Add the ground mustard, ground pepper, cloves, mustard seed, coarse sea salt, sugar, and vinegar.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil the mixture together for 1 to 2 hours, stirring well.

  2. Serve as a sauce.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  4. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

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 sauce and softens into a thick, spoonable texture as it cooks.
Tomatoes
Add moisture and body, breaking down during boiling to thicken the sauce.
Vinegar
Supplies sharp acidity that gives the sauce its tang and balances the sweetness.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that rounds out the sharpness of the vinegar and mustard.
Mustard seed
Provides a pungent, sharp flavor that characterizes the sauce.

The step that matters

Boiling and stirring for 1 to 2 hours. The sugar and chopped solids settle and can scorch on the bottom of the pot. Stirring well keeps the mixture from sticking and burning, and the long simmer lets the vegetables soften and the flavors meld.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, onion, mustard, pepper, clove, sugar, vinegar):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Broccolifits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, onion, mustard, pepper, clove, sugar, vinegar. 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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