Why it works: Carrot and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 14,555 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Tomato Sauce. to Make Four Quarts.
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the base
In a tall, thick-bottomed saucepan, fry the pork with the butter.
When the pork is nearly melted, add the carrots, onions, and bouquet garni.
Cook and stir the vegetables, then add the flour and cook until it begins to brown.
Simmer the sauce
Add the tomatoes and white stock, mix well, and bring to a boil.
Add the seasoning and a crushed clove of garlic, cover, and simmer for 1.5 hours.
Finish and serve
Pass the sauce through a sieve and bring to a boil, stirring continuously.
Pour into a tureen and butter the surface to prevent a skin from forming.
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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Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together14,555 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Carrot + tomatotop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together3,606 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together21,601 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned 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
- Flour
- Thickens the sauce and, once cooked until it begins to brown, adds a deeper, toasted flavour.
- Tomatoes
- Provide the main body, acidity and flavour of the sauce.
- White stock
- Adds liquid that carries the tomatoes and vegetables during the long simmer.
- Pork fat
- Melts to enrich the sauce and carry the flavour of the vegetables.
- Carrots and onions
- Add sweetness and aromatic depth as they cook down into the base.
The step that matters
Browning the flour. Flour cooked until it begins to brown gives a nutty, toasted flavour and thickens less than raw flour. Stop too early and the sauce tastes floury; go too far and it turns bitter.
Flavor stand-ins for the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, carrot, flour, butter, sugar, pepper, tomato):
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Potatobetter flavor fit
- Okrabetter flavor fit
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pork, carrot, flour, butter, sugar, pepper, tomato. 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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