Skip to main content
Main

Chili Sauce

A bright red sauce made from tomatoes, onions, vinegar, sugar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Onion and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,259 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Chili Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Scald and peel the tomatoes, removing the tough center core.

  2. Chop the peeled onions finely and add them to the tomatoes.

  3. Add all other ingredients and cut the tomatoes into small pieces.

  4. Place the mixture in a granite kettle.

Cook and seal

  1. Cook together, stirring frequently, until the sauce thickens, about 1 hour or longer.

  2. For a spicier sauce, add more of the flavoring ingredients as desired.

  3. Seal in airtight 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. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  2. Cinnamon + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,581 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  4. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Red tomatoes
Provide the bulk and liquid that cook down into the sauce body.
Onions
Add savory depth and body as they soften during cooking.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavor and helps preserve the sauce.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, as it thickens with the tomatoes, contributes to the sauce's body.

The step that matters

Cook together, stirring frequently, until the sauce thickens. Sugar and tomato solids can scorch on the bottom of the kettle during long cooking. Frequent stirring spreads heat evenly and keeps the sauce from burning while it reduces and thickens.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Cuminfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

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

More chili sauce recipes

Tomato 14Green Tomato 4Raw 3Sweet 3 See all 392 →

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesTomato BisqueTomato Bisque61 recipesCream Tomato SoupCream Tomato Soup28 recipes