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Sauce

Bordeaux Sauce

A cabbage and tomato sauce seasoned with spices, sugar, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Bordeaux Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine the cabbage, green tomatoes, onions, celery seed, whole black pepper, ground black pepper, ground ginger, allspice, whole cloves, mustard seed, coarse sea salt, sugar, and vinegar in a large pot, then mix well and bring to a boil.

  2. Boil for one hour, stirring occasionally.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
Forms the bulk of the sauce and breaks down into a soft, relish-like texture.
Green tomatoes
Adds tart body and moisture that cooks down into the sauce.
Onions
Contributes savory depth and bulk as they soften during boiling.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and tomatoes with sweetness.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that gives the sauce its tang and helps preserve it.

The step that matters

Boil for one hour, stirring occasionally. Long simmering softens the chopped cabbage and tomatoes and lets the vinegar mellow. Stirring prevents the sugar and solids from scorching on the bottom of the pot.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, tomato, celery, pepper, ginger, allspice, clove):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, tomato, celery, pepper, ginger, allspice, 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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