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Sauce

Bordeaux Sauce

A sauce made from green tomatoes, cabbage, onions, peppers, sugar, salt, vinegar, celery seed, and mustard seed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Bordeaux Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Chop the green tomatoes.

  2. Sprinkle the tomatoes with salt.

  3. Let the tomatoes stand overnight.

  4. Drain the tomatoes.

  5. Chop the cabbage.

  6. Chop the peppers.

Cook the sauce

  1. Combine all ingredients in a pot.

  2. Cook for 30 minutes after the mixture begins to boil.

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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 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

Green tomatoes
Form the bulk of the sauce and add a sharp, tart base.
Cabbage
Adds bulk and body, so the sauce becomes thick and chunky when cooked.
Onions
Add savory depth and bulk to the sauce.
Peppers
Add bulk and a mild, sweet vegetable flavor.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar and tomatoes.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the sauce its tang and helps preserve it.

The step that matters

Cook for 30 minutes after the mixture begins to boil. Simmering long enough softens the vegetables and lets excess liquid evaporate, so the sauce thickens and the sharp vinegar mellows. Stopping early leaves it watery and harsh-tasting.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, onion, pepper, sugar, vinegar, celery, mustard):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Broccolifits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, onion, pepper, sugar, vinegar, celery, 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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