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Chili Sauce

A tomato-based sauce with onions, peppers, sugar, salt, and cider vinegar, simmered until thick.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cider and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,431 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Chili Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Scald and peel the tomatoes.

  2. Chop the tomatoes, onions, and red peppers finely.

Cook

  1. In a large pot, combine the chopped mixture with sugar, salt, and cider vinegar.

  2. Boil for 1.5 hours or until thick.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Ripe tomatoes
Provide the bulk and main flavor base of the sauce, breaking down as they cook.
Onions
Add savory depth and body as they soften into the sauce.
Red peppers
Contribute sweetness, color, and body to the chopped mixture.
Granulated sugar
Adds sweetness and helps thicken the sauce as it reduces.
Cider vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness and helps preserve the sauce.

The step that matters

Boil until thick. Long boiling evaporates water and concentrates the sugar and vinegar. Stopping too early leaves a thin sauce, while cooking too long can scorch the sugar on the bottom of the pot, so stir regularly.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, sugar, 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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