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Tomato Sauce

A tomato sauce made by simmering tomatoes, broth, onion, parsley, and seasonings, then straining and finishing with butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,633 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Place the tomatoes, broth, onion, parsley, and seasonings in a pot over medium heat.

  2. Boil for about 35 minutes until it becomes a pulp.

  3. Rub the mixture through a fine sieve.

Finish and serve

  1. Return the strained sauce to the pot, heat it, and stir in the butter.

  2. Serve hot.

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 + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

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

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Provide the main body and flavour of the sauce, breaking down into a pulp when boiled.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, glossy mouthfeel to the finished sauce.
Onion
Adds savoury sweetness and aroma as it softens into the sauce.
Broth
Adds liquid and savoury depth so the tomatoes can simmer down.

The step that matters

Boiling until pulpy. Boiling long enough softens the tomatoes fully so they strain smoothly; undercooked tomatoes leave lumps and a thin, raw taste.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, parsley, butter):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, parsley, butter. 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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