Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Combine beef stock and tomatoes in a pot.
Add veal shank, ham shank, herbs, sliced vegetables, and bay leaf.
Boil until the vegetables are tender.
Thicken the sauce with browned flour.
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.
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Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,092 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,448 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,633 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beef + vealtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,784 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Beef + hamtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,729 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beef stock
- Forms the liquid base that carries the sauce's flavor.
- Tomatoes
- Provide the main body, acidity, and fresh tomato flavor of the sauce.
- Veal shank
- Contributes collagen that enriches the body and savoriness of the sauce as it simmers.
- Ham shank
- Adds salty, smoky meaty flavor and collagen to the simmering liquid.
- Browned flour
- Thickens the sauce and adds a toasted, nutty depth of flavor.
The step that matters
Thicken the sauce with browned flour. Flour must be stirred in evenly and cooked through, or it clumps and leaves a raw, pasty taste and uneven thickness. Browning the flour first deepens color and flavor.
Swap the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, veal, ham, onion, flour):
- Leekfits better
- Chivefits better
- Okrafits better
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, veal, ham, onion, 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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