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Chili Sauce

A spicy tomato-based sauce made with celery, onions, peppers, mustard seed, sugar, salt, pepper, cinnamon, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and mustard 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 ↓

Chili Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the sauce

  1. Combine all ingredients in a large pot.

  2. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat.

  3. Simmer for 1.5 hours, stirring occasionally.

Cool and bottle

  1. Remove from heat and let cool before bottling.

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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

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

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

  4. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  5. Mustard + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,581 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
Forms the bulk of the sauce, supplying moisture and body as they break down.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the sugar.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that softens the sharpness of the vinegar.
Onions
Adds savory depth and body as they soften during simmering.
White mustard seed
Contributes pungent flavour that mellows during long simmering.

The step that matters

Simmering. The long simmer thickens the sauce as water evaporates and sugars concentrate. Stirring occasionally keeps solids from settling and scorching on the base of the pot, which would give a burnt taste.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, celery, pepper, mustard, sugar, cinnamon, vinegar. 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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