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Chili Sauce

A tomato-based sauce with peppers, onions, vinegar, sugar, spices, and salt, simmered for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Chili Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Skin the tomatoes and place them in a kettle over medium heat.

  2. Once the water runs from the tomatoes, remove half of the water.

Cook the sauce

  1. Add the chopped onions and peppers, and boil together for 4 hours.

  2. Stir constantly during the last hour to prevent burning.

  3. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer until well mixed.

Bottle and store

  1. Pour the sauce into small bottles, cork tightly, seal, and store in a dark place.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  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

Tomatoes
Form the bulk of the sauce and provide its body and fresh tomato flavor.
Cider or wine vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the sauce its tang and helps preserve it.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity and rounds out the flavor.
Onion
Adds savory depth and aroma as it cooks down into the sauce.
Green peppers
Contribute vegetal flavor and some body as they soften during the long boil.

The step that matters

Stir constantly during the last hour. Sugar and solids settle and concentrate near the bottom of the kettle as the liquid reduces, so they scorch easily. Constant stirring keeps the heat even and prevents a burnt taste.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, pepper, cider, sugar, ginger, cinnamon, allspice):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Sweet potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, cider, sugar, ginger, cinnamon, allspice. 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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