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Plain Tomato Sauce

A simple sauce made from tomatoes, herbs, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 34,122 recipes mention both. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Plain Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the tomatoes

  1. Cut the tomatoes into quarters and place them in a saucepan.

  2. Add the parsley, green onions, leek, bay leaf, cloves, and peppercorns.

  3. Cover the saucepan and cook over medium heat until the tomatoes are soft.

Strain and finish

  1. Remove the herb bundle and strain the tomatoes through a fine sieve.

  2. Return the puree to a flat saucepan and reduce it over medium heat to the desired consistency.

  3. Season with salt and pepper, then stir in the butter before serving.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Onion + leektop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,326 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

  3. Parsley + leektop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together759 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Leek + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together579 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Provide the main body, moisture and flavor of the sauce once cooked and pureed.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother, rounder mouthfeel in the finished sauce.
Leek
Adds mild aromatic sweetness to the cooking liquid as the tomatoes soften.
Green onions
Contribute gentle aromatic flavor during the initial cooking of the tomatoes.

The step that matters

Reducing the puree to the desired consistency. Tomato puree thickens as water evaporates over heat. Using a flat, wide pan speeds evaporation, and stirring prevents scorching on the bottom.

Flavor stand-ins for the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, parsley, onion, leek, pepper, butter):

  1. Thymebetter flavor fit
  2. Garlicbetter flavor fit
  3. Celerybetter flavor fit
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, parsley, onion, leek, pepper, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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