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Sauce

Shirley Sauce

A sweet and sour tomato-based sauce with apples, onions, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Shirley Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Finely chop the tomatoes, green pepper, onions, and tart apples.

Cook

  1. Combine all ingredients in a large pot.

  2. Boil the mixture for 1.5 hours, 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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Cinnamon + appletop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 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

Tomatoes
Provide the bulk and liquid that cook down into the sauce.
Onions
Add savory sweetness and body as they soften during the long boil.
Tart apples
Add acidity and pectin that help the sauce thicken and balance the sugar.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps build a thick, glossy texture as the sauce reduces.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the sweetness and helps preserve the sauce.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture for 1.5 hours, stirring occasionally. A long, gentle boil reduces the liquid and concentrates flavors, while occasional stirring keeps sugars and solids from scorching on the bottom of the pot.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Sweet potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, vinegar, cinnamon, apple, sugar, 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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