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Tomato Paste

A thick, seasoned tomato product made by cooking tomatoes with vinegar and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,400 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

Tomato Paste

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Scald and peel the tomatoes.

  2. Place them in a stone jar and cover with paper.

  3. Leave in a warm oven for 1 hour.

  4. Remove the liquid that floats on top and press the fruit through a sieve.

Make the paste

  1. Add vinegar and seasonings to the tomatoes.

  2. Put the mixture in a clean saucepan and stir continuously from the bottom for 3 hours until thick.

Store

  1. Once cold, transfer to jars and cover well.

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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

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

  3. Vinegar + clovetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Tomato + vinegartop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,063 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Vinegar + macetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,415 recipes

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Provide the bulk and body of the paste, thickening as their water evaporates during cooking.
Vinegar
Adds acidity for a sharp tang and helps the paste keep.
Ground mace
Adds a warm, aromatic spice flavour.
Ground cloves
Adds a strong, aromatic spice flavour.

The step that matters

Stir continuously from the bottom for 3 hours. As water evaporates, the concentrated tomato sugars and solids settle and scorch easily on the base of the pan. Constant stirring from the bottom prevents burning and sticking and gives an even, thick texture.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, mace, clove. 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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