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Tomato Puree

A thick tomato puree made with tomatoes, onion, butter, sugar, water, cornstarch, and cloves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Tomato Puree

Why it works: Tomato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,633 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tomato Puree

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce base

  1. Melt the butter in a frying pan.

  2. Cook the chopped onion in the butter until tender.

  3. Dissolve the sugar and cornstarch in a little of the tomatoes.

  4. Add the dissolved mixture and water to the pan.

  5. Add the cloves.

Cook and strain

  1. Cook for 30 minutes.

  2. Strain the mixture.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

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. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Tomato + clovetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  4. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 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 and flavour of the puree.
Butter
Adds fat and richness while softening the onion.
Cornstarch
Thickens the liquid as it cooks.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the tomato's acidity.

The step that matters

Dissolve the cornstarch fully before adding it to the pan. Cornstarch clumps if added undissolved to hot liquid. Mixing it into a little cool tomato first lets the starch disperse evenly so it thickens smoothly as the mixture cooks.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, onion, butter, sugar. 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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