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Sauce

Chili Sauce

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Chili Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the tomatoes.

  2. Chop the peppers and onions together.

Make the sauce

  1. Add the vinegar and spices to the chopped mixture.

  2. Boil until thick enough.

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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 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
Provide the bulk, moisture and body that the sauce reduces into a thick texture.
Peppers
Add pungent heat and vegetable flavor to the sauce.
Onions
Add a savory base and aroma that support the other flavors.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and balances the sweetness.
Cinnamon
Contributes warm, aromatic spice notes to the sauce.
Sugar
Adds a small amount of sweetness to balance the acidity.

The step that matters

Boil until thick enough. Thickening happens as water evaporates and the solids concentrate. Boiling too briefly leaves the sauce thin, while boiling too hard or too long can scorch the bottom of the pot and darken the flavor.

Swap the onion

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

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

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