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Chili Sauce

A tomato-based sauce with onions, peppers, salt, vinegar, mustard seed, spice, and cloves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Chili Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the tomatoes, onions, and peppers.

  2. Combine all ingredients in a large pot.

Cook

  1. Boil for one hour, stirring occasionally.

  2. If the sauce is too thick, add vinegar to taste.

  3. Adjust salt as needed.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

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

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

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

  4. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Mustard + clovetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,829 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Provide the main body and moisture that cooks down into the sauce.
Onions
Add sweetness and savory depth as they soften and break down.
Peppers
Contribute fresh, vegetal sharpness and bulk to the sauce.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances its sweetness.
Mustard seed
Adds a pungent, sharp aroma and flavor to the sauce.

The step that matters

Boil for one hour, stirring occasionally. Long boiling reduces the sauce and thickens it, while the sugars in tomatoes and onions concentrate. Stirring keeps the bottom from scorching and sticking, which would make the sauce taste burnt.

Swap the tomato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, pepper, vinegar, mustard, 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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