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Chili Sauce

A tomato-based sauce with peppers, spices, currants, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cassia match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 194 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Chili Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Chop the tomatoes very finely.

  2. Add the chopped tomatoes, red peppers, spices, currants, and sugar to a large pot.

  3. Boil all ingredients together for 30 minutes.

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. Clove + cassiatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together194 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

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

  5. Tomato + clovetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Ripe tomatoes
Supply the bulk, moisture and natural acidity that form the sauce's base.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and helps preserve the sauce.
Dried currants
Add sweetness and a chewy texture as they soften during cooking.
Red peppers
Add sweetness, color and a mild pepper flavor to the sauce.

The step that matters

Boil all ingredients together for 30 minutes. As water evaporates and sugar concentrates, a thick tomato sauce can scorch on the bottom of the pot, so stir often while it simmers.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Plumfits better
  2. Cherryfits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, sugar, vinegar, mace, clove, cassia. 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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Tomato 14Green Tomato 4Raw 3Sweet 3 See all 392 →

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