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Chili Sauce

A tomato-based sauce with onions, peppers, sugar, allspice, ginger, salt, vinegar, and red pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,620 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Chili Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine all ingredients in a large pot.

  2. Boil slowly for 5 hours, stirring occasionally.

  3. Pour the sauce into bottles, cork, and seal.

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. Allspice + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

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

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

  5. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 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

Ripe tomatoes
Provide the main body, moisture and sweet-tart flavor of the sauce.
Onions
Add savory depth and aromatic sweetness as they soften during the long simmer.
Sweet bell peppers
Contribute bulk, mild sweetness and vegetal flavor to the sauce.
Cider vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens flavor and helps preserve the sauce.
Red pepper pods
Supply heat and pungency that give the sauce its chili character.

The step that matters

Boil slowly for 5 hours. Long, gentle simmering evaporates water and concentrates the sugars and acids, thickening the sauce. Too fast a boil can scorch the bottom of the pot, while stopping early leaves it thin and watery. Stirring prevents sticking.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, sugar, allspice, ginger, cider, 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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