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Sauce

Bernalillo Chile Sauce

A tomato-based sauce with green chiles, onions, sugar, vinegar, allspice, cayenne pepper, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Bernalillo Chile Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine the chopped tomatoes, chiles, and onions in a large pot.

  2. Add the sugar, vinegar, allspice, cayenne pepper, and coarse sea salt.

  3. Bring to a boil and cook until thick, stirring occasionally.

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 + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

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

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

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together670 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Provide the bulk and liquid that cook down into the sauce body.
Onions
Add savory sweetness and body as they soften and break down during cooking.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the vinegar and chiles.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and helps preserve it.
Green chiles
Supply the main chile flavor and gentle heat to the sauce.

The step that matters

Cooking until thick. The sauce thickens as water evaporates and the tomatoes and onions break down. Stirring occasionally keeps the bottom from scorching, since sugar darkens and burns easily once the mixture reduces.

Swap the onion

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

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

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