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Sauce

Chili Sauce

A vinegar-based tomato sauce with onions, peppers, and optional spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 ↓

Chili Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the tomatoes, onions, and green peppers finely.

Cook

  1. In a large pot, heat the vinegar and sugar until dissolved.

  2. Add the chopped vegetables and salt to the pot.

  3. Boil the mixture for 1 hour.

Store

  1. Seal the sauce in jars for storage.

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 + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 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 main body and moisture of the sauce as they break down during cooking.
White onions
Add savory depth and body as they soften into the sauce.
Green peppers
Contribute fresh, grassy flavor and extra bulk to the sauce.
Vinegar
Adds acidity for tang and helps preserve the sauce.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture for 1 hour. A long boil evaporates water and concentrates the flavors while the vegetables break down. Because the sauce is thick and sugary, it can scorch on the bottom of the pot, so it needs regular stirring and gentle heat.

Swap the allspice

The recipe marks allspice as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, onion, pepper, vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, clove):

  1. Allspicethe original
  2. Cardamomfits about as well
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Cuminfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, onion, pepper, vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, clove. 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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