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Chili Sauce

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Chili Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Scald, peel, and finely slice the tomatoes.

  2. Slice the green peppers and onions.

Make the sauce

  1. Mix all ingredients together, except for the vinegar.

  2. Boil the mixture for 20 minutes.

  3. Add the vinegar and continue to boil and stir for 1 to 2 hours.

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 + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  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

Tomatoes
Provide the main body, moisture and bulk of the sauce as they cook down.
Onions
Add sweetness and savory depth as they soften during the long simmer.
Green peppers
Contribute vegetal flavor and texture to the cooked sauce.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavor and helps preserve the sauce.
Granulated sugar
Balances the acidity of the vinegar and tomatoes with sweetness.

The step that matters

Simmering with the vinegar added. Once the vinegar goes in, the sauce must boil and stir for 1 to 2 hours. Stirring prevents scorching on the bottom of the pot, and the long simmer thickens the sauce and mellows its sharp acidity.

Swap the onion

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

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

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