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Sauce

A tomato-based sauce with wine, ginger, garlic, and spices, simmered and strained.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the tomato base

  1. Remove the stalks from the tomatoes and cut them in half.

  2. Squeeze out the water and seeds, then place them in a saucepan with the capsicum and beef gravy.

  3. Cook on low heat for 1 hour until melted.

  4. Rub the mixture through a fine sieve into a clean saucepan, adding white pepper and salt.

  5. Simmer for a few minutes.

  6. Mash the pulp of additional ripe tomatoes through a cloth, reducing the liquid by half.

Add the flavourings

  1. Add the green ginger, bruised garlic, salt, vinegar, and red pepper to the reduced liquid.

  2. Boil the mixture or place it in the sun for 4-5 days in a well-corked bottle.

  3. If using for soup or stews, substitute wine for vinegar and store in small bottles in a cool place.

  4. In a separate saucepan, fry the chopped onions in butter until light brown.

  5. Add the claret or port wine and a blade of mace.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Tomato + capsicumtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,520 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,076 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Ginger + garlictop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,402 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Capsicum + clovetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,438 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Provide the bulk of the sauce, with juice and pulp giving body and fresh acidity.
Beef gravy
Adds savoury depth and body to the tomato base.
Garlic
Contributes pungent aroma that mellows during the long steeping.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that helps preserve the sauce.
Claret or port wine
Adds fruity depth and aroma to the finished sauce.
Butter
Carries the onions and gives them light browning and a rich flavour.

The step that matters

Reducing the tomato liquid by half. Reducing concentrates flavour and removes excess water, so the sauce keeps better and does not dilute the later additions.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, capsicum, beef, ginger, clove, garlic, vinegar):

  1. Cuminfits better
  2. Corianderfits better
  3. Oreganofits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, capsicum, beef, ginger, clove, garlic, 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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