Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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
Make the sauce
Stew the tomatoes with cloves, parsley, pepper, and salt until soft.
Strain the mixture.
In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat until it bubbles.
Add the flour, stir, and cook until smooth.
Add the tomato pulp, stir until smooth, and thin with soup stock.
Serve
Serve hot with fish cutlets.
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.
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Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
-
Clove + parsleytop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together6,768 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + parsleytop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together5,398 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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 and flavour of the sauce once stewed and strained.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour into the sauce.
- Flour
- Cooked with the butter to form a roux that thickens the sauce.
- Soup stock
- Thins the thickened tomato mixture to a pourable consistency.
The step that matters
Cooking the flour into the butter. The flour must be cooked until smooth, with the butter bubbling, so it thickens evenly and loses its raw starchy taste. Stirring keeps lumps from forming before the pulp is added.
Flavor stand-ins for the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, parsley, pepper, butter, flour):
- Thymebetter flavor fit
- Tarragonbetter flavor fit
- Marjorambetter flavor fit
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, parsley, pepper, butter, flour. 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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