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Chilli Sauce

A tomato-based sauce with onions, pepper, celery, vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, and salt, simmered for an hour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,377 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chilli Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Strain the tomatoes through a colander as for ketchup.

  2. Chop the onions, pepper, and celery very finely.

Cook

  1. Add the chopped vegetables, vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, and salt to the strained tomatoes.

  2. Stir gently over the fire for 1 hour.

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

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

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

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

  3. Celery + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,009 recipes

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

  4. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  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

Ripe tomatoes
Form the sauce's base, providing most of its body and liquid volume.
Onions
Add savory depth and body as they soften during the long cook.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and helps preserve it.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the tomatoes and vinegar.
Cinnamon
Contributes warm aroma and spice flavour to the sauce.

The step that matters

Stir gently over the fire for 1 hour. Sugar-rich tomato mixtures can scorch on the bottom of the pot if left unattended, giving a burnt taste. Gentle, frequent stirring over moderate heat spreads heat evenly and lets the sauce thicken without sticking.

Swap the onion

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

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

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