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Tomato Puree

A cooked tomato sauce thickened with butter, onion, sugar, corn starch, and cloves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Tomato Puree

Why it works: Tomato and corn match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,099 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Tomato Puree

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Melt the butter in a skillet or frying pan.

  2. Fry the onion until tender.

Make and strain the puree

  1. Dissolve the sugar and corn starch in a little of the tomato.

  2. Add the dissolved mixture and cloves to the pan.

  3. Cook for 30 minutes and then strain.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Tomato + corntop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

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

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

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

  4. Corn + clovetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together712 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 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
Form the main body and liquid of the puree, giving its tomato flavor and acidity.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and carries flavor from the onion into the puree.
Onion
Frying softens it and builds a sweet, savory aroma as the base flavor.
Corn starch
Thickens the puree as it cooks, giving it a smoother, heavier body.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the tomato's acidity.

The step that matters

Dissolve the corn starch in cold tomato first. Starch added dry clumps when it hits hot liquid. Dissolving it in a little tomato first separates the granules, so the mixture thickens evenly and smoothly when added to the pan.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Cuminfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, butter, onion, corn, sugar. 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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