Name: Tomato Sauce for Keeping
Ingredients: 4 quarts ripe tomatoes; 2 cups cayenne vinegar; ½ oz shallots, peeled and sliced; ¼ oz garlic, peeled and sliced; coarse sea salt to taste; 2 cups soy sauce; 2 cups anchovy sauce

Why it works: Sauce and anchovy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Tomato Sauce for Keeping

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the pulp

Gather ripe tomatoes and bake them in a 300°F (150°C) oven until tender.
Rub the baked tomatoes through a sieve to make pulp.

Make the sauce

For every quart of pulp, add 2 cups of cayenne vinegar, shallots, garlic, and salt.
Boil the mixture until the garlic and shallots are soft.
Rub the mixture through a sieve again, then return it to a saucepan.
For every six quarts of liquid, add 2 cups of soy sauce and 2 cups of anchovy sauce.

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.

Sauce + anchovytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,057 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Tomato + garlictop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,076 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Shallot + garlictop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,000 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Vinegar + garlictop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,115 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Vinegar + shallottop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,374 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Ripe tomatoes: Provide the main body and bulk of the sauce once baked and sieved into pulp.
Cayenne vinegar: Adds acidity and sharpness that brightens the flavour and helps preserve the sauce.
Shallots: Soften during boiling to add aromatic sweetness and savoury depth.
Garlic: Softens during boiling to add aromatic pungency to the sauce.
Soy sauce: Adds savoury, salty depth that rounds out the sauce's umami flavour.
Anchovy sauce: Adds concentrated savoury, umami flavour that deepens the overall taste.

The step that matters

Boil until the garlic and shallots are soft. Boiling must run long enough to fully soften the aromatics and reduce their raw bite; undercooked shallots and garlic leave harsh, sharp flavours and a coarse texture that the second sieving cannot fully fix.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, shallot, garlic, sauce, anchovy):

Mustardfits better
Chivefits better
Kalefits better
Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, shallot, garlic, sauce, anchovy. 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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Tomato Sauce for Keeping