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Chilli Sauce

A spicy tomato-based sauce with onions, peppers, vinegar, sugar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Chilli Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the tomatoes, onions, and red peppers.

  2. Combine all ingredients in a pot.

Cook and seal

  1. Boil the mixture until it thickens.

  2. Seal 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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  5. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 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
Provides the main body and moisture that cooks down into the sauce.
Onions
Adds bulk and savory sweetness as they soften and break down during cooking.
Red peppers
Contributes bulk, mild sweetness, and color to the sauce.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the sweetness and brightens the flavor.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps round out the sharpness of the vinegar.
Ground allspice
Contributes warm, aromatic spice notes to the sauce.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture until it thickens. Thickening happens as water evaporates and the vegetable solids break down and concentrate. Stopping too early leaves the sauce thin and watery, while the long simmer also deepens the flavor.

Swap the onion

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

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

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