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Sauce

German Sauce

A thick sauce made from cabbage, tomatoes, onions, mustard, pepper, cloves, mustard seed, salt, sugar, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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German Sauce

Why it works: Cabbage and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,645 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

German Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the cabbage, tomatoes, and onions together.

Cook

  1. In a large pot, combine all ingredients.

  2. Boil for 1 to 2 hours, stirring well.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  4. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
Provides the bulk and the sauerkraut-style vegetable base of the sauce.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and moisture, helping the vegetables break down into a sauce.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that preserves the mixture and balances the sweetness.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that offsets the acidity of the vinegar and tomatoes.
Onions
Contribute savory depth and aroma as they soften during boiling.

The step that matters

Boil for 1 to 2 hours, stirring well. Long boiling softens the vegetables and concentrates the flavors. Stirring prevents the bottom from scorching, since sugar and chopped vegetables can burn easily in a heavy pot.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, onion, mustard, pepper, clove, sugar, vinegar):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Broccolifits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, onion, mustard, pepper, clove, 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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