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Salad

Salsa Pimiento Dulce

A salsa made from sweet red peppers, garlic, oil, salt, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Salsa Pimiento Dulce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peppers

  1. Boil the peppers in water until tender.

  2. Remove all seeds from the peppers.

  3. Blend the peppers with the garlic to form a paste.

  4. Moisten the paste with a little water.

Cook the salsa

  1. Heat the oil in a frying pan until hot.

  2. Stir in the pepper paste and add salt and vinegar to taste.

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. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Pepper + garlictop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,090 recipes

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

  3. Clove + garlictop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,368 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Garlic + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sweet red peppers
Provide the main body and sweet flavor of the salsa once blended into a paste.
Garlic
Adds pungent aroma that deepens the flavor of the salsa.
Sweet oil
Carries flavor and gives the paste a smooth, rich mouthfeel when heated.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness of the peppers.

The step that matters

Heating the oil until hot before adding the paste. Oil that is hot enough sizzles the paste on contact, driving off excess moisture and helping the flavors bloom. If the oil is too cool, the paste simmers in its own water and tastes flat and watery.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Basilfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, garlic, 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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