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ToMATO Puree

A tomato puree made by simmering tomatoes with aromatics and thickening with flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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ToMATO Puree

Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

ToMATO Puree

Ingredients

Directions

Make the puree

  1. In a saucepan, combine the tomatoes and hot water with salt, onion, cayenne, peppercorns, cloves, and mace.

  2. Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent burning.

  3. Pass the mixture through a fine colander or sieve.

Thicken and finish

  1. In a small bowl, wet the flour with cold water and rub smooth.

  2. Add tablespoonfuls of the tomato mixture to the flour and pour it back into the saucepan.

  3. Taste for seasoning and simmer briefly.

  4. If the soup is too thick, thin it out with more water as needed.

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. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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

Tomatoes
Provide the main body, flavor and liquid of the puree.
Flour
Thickens the puree as it is stirred into the liquid.
Onion
Adds savory sweetness and aroma as it softens in the simmering liquid.

The step that matters

Stirring the flour mixture back into the puree. Flour clumps if added directly to hot liquid. Wetting it with cold water and blending in hot tomato a little at a time keeps it smooth and evenly thickened.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cuminfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, onion, pepper, clove, flour. 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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