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Sauce

Bordeaux Sauce

A vinaigrette made with cider vinegar, green tomatoes, cabbage, spices, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Turmeric and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,776 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Bordeaux Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Combine all ingredients in a saucepan.

  2. Cook until soft, stirring often to prevent sticking.

Bottle and store

  1. Cork tightly in wide-mouthed bottles.

  2. Store in a dry, cool place.

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. Turmeric + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Turmeric + clovetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,876 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Turmeric + celerytop 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

Green tomatoes
Provide the bulk and tart, acidic body of the sauce as they soften.
Cabbage
Adds bulk and texture, softening during cooking to thicken the sauce.
Cider vinegar
Supplies the main acidity that gives the sauce its sharp, tangy flavour and helps preserve it.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and tomatoes with a touch of sweetness.

The step that matters

Cook until soft, stirring often. Chopped tomatoes and cabbage scorch easily on the bottom of the pan, which gives a burnt taste. Frequent stirring spreads the heat evenly and keeps the vegetables from sticking as they break down.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cider, vinegar, cabbage, turmeric, celery, ginger, clove):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Cauliflowerfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cider, vinegar, cabbage, turmeric, celery, ginger, clove. 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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