Name: Chili Sauce with Celery
Ingredients: 24 ripe cucumbers; 10 large onions; 12 large red peppers; 8 large heads of celery; 8 cups white wine vinegar; 5 tablespoons ground cinnamon; 10 tablespoons brown sugar; 6 to 8 tablespoons salt, to taste

Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chili Sauce with Celery

Ingredients

Directions

Chop all the vegetables finely.
Mix the chopped vegetables with the other ingredients.
Boil the mixture for 4.5 to 5 hours.

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.

Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Celery + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,009 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,518 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Cucumber + celerytop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,745 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Cucumber + oniontop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,050 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

Cucumbers: Provide the bulk of the sauce and release moisture as they cook down.
Onions: Add savoury sweetness and body as they soften during the long cook.
Red peppers: Contribute sweetness, colour and a mild pepper flavour to the sauce.
Celery: Adds a fresh, vegetal flavour and extra bulk to the sauce.
White wine vinegar: Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps preserve the sauce.
Brown sugar: Adds sweetness and depth, balancing the acidity of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture for 4.5 to 5 hours. Long boiling evaporates water and concentrates flavour, while the acid and sugar keep the sauce balanced. Too short a cook leaves it watery and raw-tasting, and the sugar can scorch on the bottom of the pan if it is not stirred regularly.

Swap the onion

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

Capsicumfits better
Mustardfits better
Lettucefits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, pepper, celery, white wine, vinegar, cinnamon, 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.

Wine Sauce (for stewed fruit)186 recipes

Wine Sauce for Sweet Puddings6 recipes

Caper Sauce180 recipes

Brown Sauce141 recipes

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Chili Sauce with Celery