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Sauce

Mogul or Chetna Sauce

A vinegar-based sauce with shallots, mushroom ketchup, soy sauce, cayenne pepper, mustard seed, and allspice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 859 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Mogul or Chetna Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Steep the shallots in vinegar for 12 hours.

  2. Strain the mixture and combine it with mushroom catsup, soy sauce, cayenne pepper, mustard seed, and allspice.

  3. Boil the mixture, then let it cool.

Bottle

  1. Bottle the sauce and cork it tightly.

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. Shallot + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together859 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Shallot + allspicetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together386 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Shallots
Steeping in vinegar releases their onion flavor into the liquid, giving the sauce its base savoriness.
Vinegar
Acts as the steeping liquid and provides sharp acidity that gives the sauce its tang.
Mushroom catsup
Adds concentrated savory umami depth to the sauce.
Soy sauce
Contributes salty, savory depth that rounds out the sauce.
Cayenne pepper
Provides heat that gives the sauce its pungent bite.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture, then let it cool. Boiling blends the steeped flavors and reduces harsh raw notes from the shallots and vinegar. Letting it cool fully before bottling keeps the sauce stable and prevents pressure or spoilage in a sealed bottle.

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shallot, vinegar, mushroom, sauce, pepper, mustard):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shallot, vinegar, mushroom, sauce, pepper, mustard. 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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