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Sauce

Bordeaux Sauce

A cabbage and tomato-based sauce with mustard, celery seed, turmeric, sugar, salt, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Bordeaux Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the cabbage, green tomatoes, onions, and red peppers finely.

Cook

  1. In a large pot, combine all ingredients.

  2. Boil the mixture for twenty minutes, 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. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Mustard + turmerictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,279 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

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 gives it a soft, chunky texture as it cooks.
Green tomatoes
Add tart acidity and body to the sauce as they break down during cooking.
Onions
Contribute savoury depth and a little sweetness once softened by boiling.
Vinegar
Provides sharp acidity that brightens the sauce and helps keep it stable.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar and green tomatoes.
White mustard seed
Adds a sharp, pungent flavour that stands out in the cooked sauce.

The step that matters

Stirring during the boil. Sugar and chopped vegetables can stick and scorch on the base of the pot. Stirring occasionally spreads the heat evenly, keeps the pieces from sticking, and helps the vegetables soften at an even rate.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, onion, pepper, mustard, celery, turmeric, sugar):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Broccolifits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, onion, pepper, mustard, celery, turmeric, sugar. 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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