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Tomato Sauce

A sauce made from tomatoes, onion, ham, butter, stock, and thickened with cornflour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the tomatoes, ham, and onion.

Cook

  1. Add the butter and seasoning, then sauté for 10 minutes.

  2. Add the stock and simmer until the onion is tender.

Finish

  1. Pass the mixture through a sieve.

  2. Thicken with cornflour, bring to a boil, and add coloring if necessary.

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.

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + hamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Onion + hamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,159 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Tomato + buttertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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, flavour and liquid of the sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavour as the vegetables sauté.
Onion
Adds savoury sweetness and aroma as it softens.
Cornflour
Thickens the sauce as it comes to a boil.
Lean ham
Adds savoury, meaty flavour to the sauce.

The step that matters

Thicken with cornflour, bring to a boil. Cornflour must be brought to a boil to fully thicken and lose its raw starchy taste. Stir it in smoothly first so lumps do not form in the sauce.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, butter, ham. 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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