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Sauce

Tomato Puree

A smooth tomato sauce made by simmering tomatoes with brown stock and aromatics, then passing the mixture through a sieve.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Tomato Puree

Why it works: Parsley and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Tomato Puree

Ingredients

Directions

Make the tomato base

  1. Combine the tomatoes, brown stock, bay leaf, parsley, celery, and sugar in a saucepan.

  2. Simmer thoroughly.

Make the onion roux

  1. In a separate pan, melt the butter and sauté the onion until soft but not browned.

  2. Add flour to the onion and mix well.

Finish and serve

  1. Combine the onion mixture with the tomatoes and season with salt and pepper.

  2. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve or strainer.

  3. Reheat and serve.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Form the main body and bright, acidic flavour of the purée.
Brown stock
Adds savoury depth and liquid to thin and carry the tomato flavour.
Butter
Carries the onion's flavour and adds richness to the purée.
Onion
Adds sweet, savoury aromatic flavour once softened in butter.
Flour (in the method)
Thickens the onion mixture so the purée becomes smooth and body-rich.

The step that matters

Sauté the onion until soft but not browned. Browning changes the onion's flavour toward bitter and caramelised notes that would colour the pale purée. Gentle cooking softens the cells so the mixture strains smoothly and blends evenly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, parsley, celery, sugar, butter, pepper):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, parsley, celery, sugar, butter, pepper. 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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