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Sauce

Zouave Sauce

A spicy tomato-based sauce with onions, vinegars, mustard, chutney, raisins, and Tabasco.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 901 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

Zouave Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the onions

  1. Mince the onions and fry them lightly in hot fat.

  2. Drain the onions and place them in a clean stew-pan.

Make the sauce

  1. Add the tomato puree, brown sauce, and vinegars; bring to a boil and skim off any fat.

  2. Add salt, French mustard, and Tabasco sauce to taste.

  3. Stir in the chutney and quartered raisins, then simmer until the onions and raisins are tender.

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. Tarragon + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together901 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  2. Tarragon + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  4. Tomato + tarragontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together391 recipes

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

  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

Onions
Provide the bulk and savory sweetness that forms the body of the sauce.
Tomato puree
Adds body, colour and a fresh, slightly acidic tomato flavour.
Brown sauce
Contributes depth, savoury richness and colour to the sauce.
Sultana raisins
Add sweetness and a soft, chewy texture as they simmer.

The step that matters

Simmering until the onions and raisins are tender. Simmering long enough lets the onions and raisins soften fully and release their sugars and flavour into the sauce. Stopping early leaves a raw, crunchy texture and a flat, less cohesive sauce.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, tomato, sauce, tarragon, vinegar, mustard, pepper):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, tomato, sauce, tarragon, vinegar, mustard, pepper. 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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