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Tomato Sauce

A sauce made from green tomatoes, onions, green peppers, spices, mustard, olive oil, salt, and vinegar, boiled and jarred.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,539 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. In a large pot, combine the green tomatoes, onions, green peppers, spices, ground mustard, olive oil, and coarse sea salt.

  2. Cover the mixture with strong vinegar.

  3. Boil for about 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

Jar and seal

  1. Pour the sauce into small jars and seal with paper to exclude air.

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 + olivetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,539 recipes

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

  2. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Mustard + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Green tomatoes
Provide the main body and tart flavor of the sauce as they cook down.
Onions
Add sweetness and bulk, softening as they cook into the sauce.
Ground mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavor that balances the sweetness and acidity.
Olive oil
Contributes fat for a smoother mouthfeel and richer flavor.
Strong vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavor and helps preserve the sauce.

The step that matters

Boil for about 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Long simmering breaks down the green tomatoes and onions into a thick sauce. Stirring prevents scorching on the bottom of the pot, which would add a burnt flavor.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, pepper, mustard, olive, vinegar):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Cucumberfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, mustard, olive, vinegar. 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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