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Sauce

Tomato Cream Sauce

A tomato-based sauce thickened with white sauce and seasoned with herbs, served with baked fish or lobster cutlets.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Fannie Merritt Farmer · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,193 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Tomato Cream Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Cook and strain

  1. Cook tomatoes twenty minutes with seasonings.

  2. Rub through a strainer.

Finish and serve

  1. Add soda.

  2. Add White Sauce.

  3. Serve with Baked Fish or Lobster Cutlets.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

133Calories
3 gProtein
1 gFat
31 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 9 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Thyme1 tsp dried (1.4g)4
Bay Leaf1 leaf (0.6g)2
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Saucenot 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 Fannie Merritt Farmer. 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.

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. Thyme + celerytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,193 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Thyme + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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, moisture and tangy tomato flavour of the sauce.
White sauce i
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture that thickens the tomato base.
Onion
Adds savoury aroma and depth as it softens into the cooking liquid.
Celery
Contributes a subtle vegetal aroma that rounds out the seasoning.
Soda
Neutralises some of the tomatoes' acidity, mellowing the sharpness of the sauce.

The step that matters

Add the soda carefully. Soda reacts with the acid in hot tomatoes and makes them foam up. Too much can leave a soapy, flat taste. The small measure is meant only to take the edge off the acidity.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, thyme, celery, sauce):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, thyme, celery, sauce. 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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