Name: Tomato Chili Sauce
Ingredients: 9 ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped; 2 red peppers, chopped; 1 onion, finely chopped; 1 teacup (240 ml) vinegar; 2 tablespoons brown sugar; 1 tablespoon salt; 1 teaspoon ground ginger; 1 teaspoon ground cloves; 1 teaspoon ground allspice

Why it works: Clove and allspice 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 ↓

Tomato Chili Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

In a large pot, combine the tomatoes, red peppers, onion, vinegar, brown sugar, salt, ginger, cloves, and allspice. Stir well and bring to a simmer.
Cook for 1 hour, stirring occasionally, until the sauce thickens.

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.

Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,874 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,038 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,620 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,395 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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 that the sauce reduces into.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and helps keep the sauce stable.
Brown sugar: Adds sweetness and depth that balances the acidity of the vinegar and tomatoes.
Onion: Adds savory base flavor that becomes mellow as it cooks down.

The step that matters

Cook for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Thickening happens as water evaporates over a long simmer. Stirring prevents scorching on the bottom of the pot, which would add a bitter, burnt taste.

Swap the onion

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

Capsicumfits better
Carrotfits better
Mustardfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, vinegar, sugar, ginger, clove, allspice. 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 Chili Sauce