Name: Tomato Sauce
Ingredients: tomatoes; 1 tablespoon sweet oil; 1 tablespoon vinegar; ½ teaspoon mixed mustard; cayenne pepper; coarse sea salt to taste

Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 17,923 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

Peel and slice the tomatoes.
In a bowl, mix sweet oil, vinegar, mixed mustard, cayenne pepper, and coarse sea salt.
Combine the dressing with the sliced tomatoes.

Serve

Serve as a sauce for cold roast beef.

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.

Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together15,430 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + mustardtop 11% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together2,482 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together27,814 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes: Form the body of the sauce and supply its juice and fresh flavor.
Sweet oil: Adds fat and smoothness, carrying flavor through the sauce.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and balances the oil.
Mixed mustard: Adds sharp flavor and helps bind the oil and vinegar together.

Flavor stand-ins for the mustard

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

Capsicumbetter flavor fit
Cucumberbetter flavor fit
Mustardthe original
Okraabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, vinegar, pepper. 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.