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Tomato Sauce

A tomato sauce made with tomatoes, onion, thyme, celery, butter, sugar, salt, pepper, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,193 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the seeds from the tomatoes and cut them up.

  2. Add the chopped onion, thyme, celery, butter, sugar, salt, and pepper.

Stew

  1. Stew gently.

  2. Dredge in a little flour and continue to stew until thick as cream.

Serve

  1. Serve with roast beef or fowl.

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. Thyme + celerytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,193 recipes

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

  2. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Tomato + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

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

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 of the sauce, breaking down into a pulpy base as they stew.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the stewing liquid so the sauce becomes thick as cream.
Onion
Contributes savory depth and aroma as it softens in the sauce.

The step that matters

Dredge in a little flour and continue to stew. Flour added to hot liquid can clump if not dispersed well. Stirring it in evenly and simmering long enough lets starch swell and thicken the sauce smoothly.

Swap the onion

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

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

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