Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 17,451 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓
Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Put the quart can of tomatoes in a stew-pan over the fire, then add the slice of onion, cloves, pepper, and salt.
Boil for about 20 minutes.
Remove from heat and strain through a sieve.
In another pan, melt the butter, then sprinkle in the flour as the butter melts, stirring until it browns and froths slightly.
Mix the tomato pulp with the butter and flour mixture.
Serve.
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.
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Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together20,633 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + clovetop 12% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together3,474 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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 and flavour of the sauce once strained into pulp.
- Butter
- Carries fat and flavour and, once browned with flour, adds a nutty richness.
- Flour
- Thickens the sauce when cooked with butter and then mixed into the tomato pulp.
- Onion
- Adds aromatic sweetness to the tomatoes during boiling.
The step that matters
Browning the butter and flour. Stirring constantly keeps the flour from scorching, and cooking it until it just browns builds flavour and gives the roux stronger thickening once it meets the hot tomato pulp.
Flavor stand-ins for the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, clove, pepper, butter, flour):
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Eggplantbetter flavor fit
- Okrabetter flavor fit
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, clove, pepper, butter, flour. 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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