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Shirley Sauce

A tomato-based sauce with onions, green peppers, sugar, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Shirley Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash, peel, and slice the tomatoes, onions, and green peppers.

Cook

  1. In a pot, combine the tomatoes and onions and boil them first.

  2. Strain the mixture, then add the green peppers, sugar, and vinegar.

  3. Boil all ingredients slowly until done.

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

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

  2. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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, moisture, and tangy flavor of the sauce.
Onions
Add savory depth and aroma as they soften during boiling.
Green peppers
Contribute a fresh, slightly bitter vegetable flavor and texture.
Sugar
Balances the acidity of the vinegar and tomatoes with sweetness.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the sauce its sharp, tangy character.

The step that matters

Boil all ingredients slowly until done. Slow boiling lets the sauce reduce and thicken gradually while the flavors blend. Boiling too hard can scorch the bottom or cook the vegetables unevenly, and the sauce is not done until it has reduced to the desired consistency.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, 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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