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Tomato Boogeah

A tomato-based sauce made by boiling tomatoes, then frying with chillies, garlic, and salt, and simmering until thick.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and ginger 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 ↓

Tomato Boogeah

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pour boiling water over the tomatoes to remove the skins.

  2. Cut the tomatoes up.

Cook

  1. Heat the ghee in a pan and fry the tomatoes with the chillies, garlic, and salt until browned.

  2. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the water from the tomatoes evaporates.

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. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Tomato + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,076 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Garlic + gingertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,402 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Ripe tomatoes
Provide the main body and liquid that reduces down into the sauce.
Ghee
Adds fat for frying, carrying flavor and encouraging browning of the tomatoes.
Garlic
Contributes pungent aroma that mellows and sweetens as it cooks.
Green chillies
Add heat and fresh, sharp aroma to the sauce.

The step that matters

Simmer until the water evaporates. Tomatoes are mostly water, so the sauce thickens only once that liquid cooks off. Stopping early leaves it watery, while cooking too long can scorch the sugars and dull the fresh flavor.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Broccolifits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ghee, onion, clove, garlic, ginger. 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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