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Chilli Sauce

A thick, spiced tomato-based sauce made with vinegar, mustard, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and allspice 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 ↓

Chilli Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Combine tomatoes, onions, and green peppers in a porcelain kettle.

  2. Add vinegar, mustard, sugar, cinnamon sticks, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, and salt.

Cook and bottle

  1. Boil for 2 hours or until thick.

  2. Remove cinnamon sticks, bottle, and seal.

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. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  5. Mustard + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,581 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Form the bulk of the sauce and break down into a thick, moist base.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavor and helps preserve the sauce.
Onions
Add savory sweetness and body as they soften during the long simmer.
Sugar
Balances the acidity of the vinegar and adds sweetness.
Green peppers
Contribute fresh, slightly bitter vegetable flavor and texture to the sauce.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavor that complements the spices.

The step that matters

Boil for 2 hours or until thick. Long simmering evaporates water and concentrates the sauce, so it thickens properly. Stopping early leaves it thin and more prone to spoilage.

Swap the onion

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

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

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