Name: Tomato Mustard
Ingredients: 1 peck ripe tomatoes; ½ pound salt; 6 red peppers; 3 tablespoons black pepper; 1 ounce ginger; ½ ounce mace; ½ ounce cloves of garlic; 2 onions; ¼ pound mustard; 1 tablespoon red peppers; ½ pint vinegar

Why it works: Ginger and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

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.

Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,038 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Tomato + garlictop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,076 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Garlic + mustardtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together4,053 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Ripe tomatoes: Form the bulk of the sauce and provide its body and moisture as they cook down.
Mustard: Adds sharp, pungent flavour that gives the sauce its characteristic bite.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps preserve the sauce.
Red peppers: Contribute heat and pepper flavour during the long boil.
Onions: Add savoury sweetness and body as they break down into the sauce.

The step that matters

Mix in the mustard and vinegar after cooling. Mustard's pungency and vinegar's acidity are volatile and can fade or turn harsh with prolonged boiling, so they are added at the end once the sauce has cooled.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, pepper, ginger, clove, garlic, onion, mustard):

Cuminfits better
Turmericfits better
Thymefits better
Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, ginger, clove, garlic, onion, mustard. 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.

Tomato Mustard