Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 34,122 recipes mention both. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the tomato juice
Add salt, pepper, and parsley to tomato juice.
Simmer until reduced to about 1 cup.
Make the sauce
Melt butter in a saucepan.
Stir in flour until smooth.
Add strained tomato juice to flour mixture.
Cook for a few minutes until smooth and thick.
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.
-
Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together20,633 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Tomato + parsleytop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together5,398 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together25,843 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Tomato juice
- Forms the liquid base of the sauce and carries its tomato flavor.
- Flour
- Thickens the sauce as it cooks with the melted fat and liquid.
- Butter
- Provides fat for richness and helps the flour blend smoothly into the sauce.
The step that matters
Stir in flour until smooth. Flour clumps if it hits hot fat or liquid unevenly. Stirring it into the melted butter first coats each particle, so the thickening starch disperses and the sauce turns smooth rather than lumpy.
Flavor stand-ins for the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, flour, butter, pepper, parsley):
- Okrabetter flavor fit
- Carrotbetter flavor fit
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, flour, butter, pepper, parsley. 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.
More tomato sauce recipes
You might also like
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Cream of Tomato Soup107 recipes
Tomato Bisque61 recipes
Cream Tomato Soup28 recipesThe Sunday pairing: one pairing, the chemistry behind it, and how to cook it. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account for sign-in; Pro adds the full results and chemistry.