Why it works: Tomato and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,592 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Tomato Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Skin and strain the tomatoes.
Cook
In a pot, combine the strained tomatoes and sugar in equal parts.
Add the rind and pulp of the lemons.
Boil the mixture until it thickens.
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 + lemontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,592 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Tomato + sugartop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,667 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
- Provide the bulk and main flavour, and their pectin and pulp help the jam set as it thickens.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and, with boiling, thickens the mixture and helps it set into a jam.
- Lemons
- Add acidity and aroma from the rind and pulp, and help balance the sweetness.
The step that matters
Boil the mixture until it thickens. Sugar and tomato must be cooked long enough to reach the set point; undercooked jam stays runny, while overcooking can make it dark and sticky.
Swap the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, lemon):
- Arrowrootfits better
- Sweet potatofits better
- Kalefits better
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon. 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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