Name: Chilli Sauce
Ingredients: 12 large ripe tomatoes; 4 onions; 2 green peppers; 1 red pepper; 2 teaspoons cinnamon; 2 teaspoons cloves; 2 teaspoons allspice; 1 teaspoon ginger; 1 quart vinegar

Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Chilli Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Peel the onions and tomatoes, and seed the peppers.
Chop all the ingredients finely.

Cook and bottle

In a pot, combine the chopped ingredients with the spices and vinegar.
Boil for 2 hours.
Allow to cool, then seal in bottles.

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.

Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,874 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,536 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,380 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,038 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

Ripe tomatoes: Provide the main bulk and moisture that cook down into the sauce.
Onions: Add savoury sweetness and body as they soften during the long boil.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps preserve the sauce.
Green peppers: Contribute fresh, grassy flavour and some texture to the sauce.

Swap the onion

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

Capsicumfits better
Carrotfits better
Mustardfits better
Onionthe original

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