Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Tomatoe Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Stew the love-apples in a little water until soft.
Pulp the stewed tomatoes through a sieve.
Add coarse sea salt, ginger, Cayenne pepper, and vinegar to the pulp.
Boil the mixture, then strain it.
Bottle the sauce for storage.
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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Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Ginger + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,800 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Apple + gingertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,424 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + gingertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,887 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Apple + tomatotop 13% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together548 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, ginger, pepper, vinegar):
- Limefits better
- Cherryfits better
- Mangofits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, ginger, pepper, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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