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Sauce

Tomato Butter

A thick tomato sauce made by simmering tomatoes, apple sauce, molasses, and spices until reduced.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and apple match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 548 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tomato Butter

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine cleaned tomatoes and apple sauce in a large pot.

  2. Add molasses and spices.

  3. Boil the mixture until it reduces to 2 gallons. Stir occasionally to prevent sticking.

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 + appletop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together548 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,469 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sauce + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together280 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Apple + molassestop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together970 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  5. Apple + saucetop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together965 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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 bulk of the butter as they cook down.
Apple sauce
Adds body and natural pectin to help the butter thicken as it reduces.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and deep color while thickening the butter during long cooking.

The step that matters

Stirring while boiling down. Thick, sugar-rich mixtures scorch easily on the bottom of a pot. Frequent stirring keeps sugars from burning and makes sure the mixture reduces evenly.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, sauce, molasses):

  1. Cherryfits better
  2. Avocadofits better
  3. Grapefits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, sauce, molasses. 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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