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Sauce

Ripe Mango Chili Sauce

A spicy tomato and mango sauce with vinegar, sugar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and mango match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 225 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Ripe Mango Chili Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Scald and peel the tomatoes, then remove the hard center cores.

  2. Chop the onions and red mangoes as finely as possible.

  3. Cut the tomatoes into small pieces.

Cook

  1. Combine tomatoes, mangoes, onions, and all other ingredients in a granite pot.

  2. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens, about 1 to 1.5 hours.

  3. If a sweeter sauce is desired, add more sugar.

Seal

  1. Seal in airtight glass jars or bottles.

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 + mangotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together225 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Mango + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together471 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  5. Mango + cinnamontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together126 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 the thick base as they cook.
Red mango peppers
Add chili heat and fruity flavor that gives the sauce its character.
Onions
Add savory depth and body as they soften during the long cook.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavor and helps preserve the sauce.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the vinegar and chili, and can be adjusted to taste.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the sauce and helps draw moisture out of the vegetables.

The step that matters

Cook over low heat, stirring constantly. Sugar and tomato solids scorch easily on the bottom of a pot. Low heat and constant stirring let the mixture thicken evenly without burning.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Cuminfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, onion, mango, pepper, 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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