Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 17,451 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓
Tomato Sauce for the Above Dish
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
In a pot, combine 1 quart can of tomatoes with 2 tablespoonfuls of butter.
Add 2 tablespoonfuls of flour, 2 cloves, and 1 sliced onion.
Cook the tomato, onion, and cloves for 10 minutes, then strain the mixture.
Return the strained sauce to the stove; when it boils, add the butter and flour that have been rubbed together; or, if you prefer, add the butter and then stir in the flour mixed with a little water.
Season with pepper and salt.
Serve
Serve with boiled fish or macaroni.
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. See the original page.
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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Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together20,633 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Clove + tomatotop 12% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together3,474 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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, acidity and flavour of the sauce.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, and with flour forms a thickening roux.
- Flour
- Thickens the sauce as it heats with the butter, giving it body.
- Onion
- Adds aromatic sweetness and savour as it cooks in the tomatoes.
The step that matters
Adding the butter and flour. Flour lumps if dropped into hot liquid unmixed. Rubbing it with butter first, or mixing it with a little cold water, coats the starch so it disperses evenly and thickens smoothly when the sauce boils.
Flavor stand-ins for the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, clove, tomato, pepper):
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Eggplantbetter flavor fit
- Okrabetter flavor fit
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, clove, tomato, pepper. 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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