Name: Tomato Sauce
Ingredients: 1 can of tomatoes; ½ teaspoon salt; ¼ teaspoon pepper; 1 teaspoon sugar; 3 tablespoons butter; 1 handful of dry bread crumbs or leftover stewed corn

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Open a can of tomatoes at least one hour before use and empty into an earthenware basin.

Cook the sauce

Cook in tin or porcelain for 30 minutes over low heat.
Add salt, pepper, sugar, butter, and bread crumbs (or stewed corn).
Cook for an additional 10 minutes, then 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.

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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,013 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,964 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 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 base of the sauce, supplying most of its body and tomato flavour.
Butter: Adds richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel to the sauce.
Dry bread crumbs or stewed corn: Thicken the sauce and give it body as they absorb liquid during cooking.
Sugar: Balances the acidity of the tomatoes and rounds out their flavour.