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Shirley Sauce

A tomato-based sauce with onion, green pepper, ginger, sugar, salt, and vinegar, simmered for an hour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Shirley Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and cook

  1. Chop the tomatoes, onion, and green pepper finely.

  2. Stir all the ingredients together.

  3. Simmer for one hour.

Bottle

  1. Bottle the sauce while hot.

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

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

  2. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,800 recipes

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

  4. Onion + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,595 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + gingertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,887 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

Ripe tomatoes
Provide the main bulk, moisture and fruity body of the sauce.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the sauce its tang and helps preserve it.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the vinegar and tomatoes.
Onion
Contributes savory aroma and flavor base as it softens during simmering.
Green pepper
Adds fresh, slightly bitter vegetable flavor and texture to the sauce.

The step that matters

Simmer for one hour. Long simmering lets water evaporate and the chopped vegetables break down, thickening the sauce and blending the flavors. Too brief a simmer leaves it thin and sharp-tasting.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Cucumberfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, sugar, ginger, 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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