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Chili Sauce

A tomato-based sauce with vinegar, onion, peppers, cloves, allspice, sugar, ginger, and salt, boiled for an hour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Chili Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil the tomatoes, vinegar, onion, and peppers together for one hour.

  2. Add cloves, allspice, sugar, ginger, and salt to the mixture.

  3. Stir well and continue to boil for a few more 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 + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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 body and fruity flavor as they cook down.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the sweetness.
Onion
Adds savory depth and aroma that softens as it simmers.
Peppers
Contribute heat and vegetable flavor to the sauce.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that rounds out the acidity of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Long simmer before the spices go in. The hour-long boil lets water evaporate so the sauce thickens and the flavors concentrate. Stirring during this time helps prevent sticking and scorching on the bottom of the pan as the sugar and solids reduce.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, vinegar, pepper, clove, allspice, sugar, ginger. 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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