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Beef with Tomatoes

A dish of broiled beef served with a tomato and clove butter sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,448 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beef with Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Broil the beef until cooked to your liking.

  2. In a separate pot, boil the tomatoes with the cloves.

  3. Add butter to the tomatoes and stir until melted.

  4. Serve the beef topped with the tomato mixture.

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. Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + clovetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Beef + clovetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Tomato + buttertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Forms the main body of the dish and carries its savory, meaty flavor.
Tomatoes
Provide acidity and moisture, forming a sauce that brightens the rich beef.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the tomato sauce a smooth, glossy texture.
Cloves
Contribute a warm, aromatic spice flavor to the tomatoes as they boil.

The step that matters

Boil the tomatoes with the cloves. Boiling tomatoes with whole cloves extracts their aroma gradually, so the spice flavors the sauce without becoming harsh or bitter. Overcooking can make the sauce taste dull or overly sharp.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, tomato, butter):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Pepperfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, tomato, butter. 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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