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Tomato Cream Sauce

A creamy tomato sauce made with tomatoes, onion, celery, bay leaf, butter, flour, milk, salt, cayenne, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,377 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Tomato Cream Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the tomato base

  1. Combine ½ can of tomatoes, 2 slices of onion, 1 piece of bay leaf, and 1 stalk of celery in a saucepan.

  2. Simmer the mixture for 10 minutes.

  3. Strain the simmered mixture.

Make the cream sauce

  1. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in another saucepan.

  2. Add 2 tablespoons of flour to the melted butter and stir until blended.

  3. Gradually add 1 cup of milk, stirring until it bubbles.

  4. Stir in 1 teaspoon of salt and a few grains of cayenne.

Combine and serve

  1. Measure 1 cup of the strained tomato and stir in ¼ teaspoon of baking soda.

  2. Add the tomato mixture to the cream sauce and heat until hot.

  3. Serve immediately.

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

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Melted with flour to form the roux that thickens the sauce and adds richness.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a smooth, creamy sauce body.
Milk
Forms the creamy liquid base that the roux thickens into sauce.
Strained tomato
Provides the main tomato flavour and liquid for the finished sauce.
Baking soda
Neutralises some tomato acidity, mellowing the sharpness and softening the flavour.

The step that matters

Adding the baking soda to the tomato. Baking soda reacts with acid and releases carbon dioxide, so it foams up. Add only the measured amount, since too much leaves a soapy, bitter taste. Stir it in fully before combining with the cream sauce.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, celery, butter, flour, milk. 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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