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Tomato Puree

A tomato puree made by simmering tomatoes with water, herbs, and spices, thickened with a butter‑flour roux and served with croutons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Ronald · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 11 ingredients
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Tomato Puree

Why it works: Parsley and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Tomato Puree

Ingredients

Directions

Make the tomato base

  1. Put a quart of canned or fresh tomatoes into a granite‑ware saucepan.

  2. Add a pint of water or stock.

  3. Add one bay leaf, a sprig of parsley, a stick of celery, six peppercorns, and a teaspoonful of sugar.

  4. Simmer until the tomatoes are thoroughly soft.

Make the roux

  1. In another saucepan, put a tablespoon of butter.

  2. When hot, add a sliced onion and fry, but do not brown it.

  3. Add a tablespoon of flour and cook, but do not brown the flour.

  4. Add enough tomato to the roux to dilute it.

Finish and serve

  1. Mix the roux with the rest of the tomato and season with salt.

  2. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve or strainer.

  3. Heat the puree again before serving.

  4. Sprinkle small croutons over the top.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

613Calories
14 gProtein
13 gFat
109 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 7 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Mary Ronald. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Parsley + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes (in the method)
Provide the main body, flavour and colour of the puree once softened and strained.
Butter
Fat that cooks with the flour to form a roux, which thickens the puree.
Flour
Starch that, cooked with butter, thickens the tomato liquid into a smooth puree.
Sugar
Adds a touch of sweetness that balances the acidity of the tomatoes.

The step that matters

Cooking the roux without browning it. Flour thickens best when cooked gently in fat until it loses its raw taste. Browning changes its color and flavor and weakens its thickening power, so keep the heat moderate and stir constantly.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, sugar, butter, flour):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, sugar, butter, flour. 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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