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Chili Sauce

A tomato-based sauce with onions, celery, peppers, sugar, vinegar, salt, spices, boiled for eight hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and turmeric match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,197 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Chili Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the tomatoes, onions, celery, and red peppers finely.

Cook

  1. In a large pot, combine all ingredients.

  2. Boil for 8 hours, stirring occasionally.

  3. Bottle the sauce while hot.

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 + turmerictop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,197 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Celery + turmerictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,356 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  4. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + turmerictop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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, moisture and sweet-tart flavor of the sauce.
Onions
Add savory depth and bulk that softens into the sauce as it cooks.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps thicken the sauce as it reduces.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavor and helps preserve the sauce.
Red peppers
Contribute sweetness, color and a mild pepper flavor.

The step that matters

Boil for 8 hours, stirring occasionally. A long, gentle boil reduces the liquid and concentrates flavor, while stirring prevents the sugar-rich mixture from scorching on the bottom of the pot.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, celery, pepper, sugar, vinegar, cinnamon, turmeric. 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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Tomato 14Green Tomato 4Raw 3Sweet 3 See all 392 →

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