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Chili Sauce

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon 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

  1. Peel and slice the tomatoes.

  2. Finely chop the onions, celery, and red peppers.

Cook

  1. Cook the vegetables slowly for 30 minutes.

  2. Add vinegar, sugar, salt, grated nutmeg, and spices tied in a bag.

  3. Cook slowly for another 30 minutes or until thick.

Bottle

  1. Pour into bottles and seal while hot.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  4. Celery + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,009 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Provide the main body and bulk of the sauce as they break down during cooking.
Onions
Add savory depth and sweetness as they soften and slowly caramelize during long cooking.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and helps preserve the sauce.
Sugar
Balances the acidity and adds sweetness while helping the sauce thicken.
Red peppers
Contribute sweetness, mild bitterness, and color to the sauce.

The step that matters

Cook slowly until thick. Long, gentle simmering lets water evaporate so the sauce thickens and the vegetables break down evenly. Cooking too hot can scorch the sugar and sticks at the bottom of the pan.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, celery, pepper, vinegar, sugar, nutmeg, 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.

More chili sauce recipes

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

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