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Tomato Sauce

A thick sauce made from tomato pulp, water, vinegar, molasses, salt, mustard, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 14,189 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large kettle, combine water, vinegar, dark molasses, salt, and dry mustard.

  2. Add whole tomato pulp and mix well.

  3. Place spices in a bag and suspend in the kettle while the sauce is boiling.

  4. Adjust the consistency with water if necessary, ensuring it is not too liquid.

  5. Ensure all tomatoes are clean, ripe, and free from decay.

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.

  1. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Mustard + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,581 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomato pulp
Forms the bulk of the sauce and gives it body and most of its flavor.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and balances the sweetness.
Dark molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color and a deep, rich flavor.
Dry mustard
Adds a sharp, pungent note that deepens the savory flavor.
Cloves
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavor while the sauce simmers.

The step that matters

Adjust the consistency with water. Adding water thins the sauce and dilutes its flavor, so add it only if needed. Letting the sauce boil gently reduces and concentrates it, which helps achieve the right thickness.

Flavor stand-ins for the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, molasses, tomato, clove, cinnamon, allspice, sugar):

  1. Capsicumabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, molasses, tomato, clove, cinnamon, allspice, sugar. 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.

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