Why it works: Tomato and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and 2,034 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Make the sauce
Peel and slice the tomatoes.
Stew the tomatoes until perfectly smooth.
Season with salt and pepper, then add the butter.
Just before removing from heat, stir in the cream mixed with the flour.
Do not let it boil after adding the flour.
Serve
Serve the tomato mixture over pieces of toast.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Tomato + creamtop 21% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together2,034 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
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Butter + creamtop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together41,494 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Tomato + peppertop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together17,913 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + flourtop 6% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together122,858 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Tomato + buttertop 11% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together6,890 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Butter and flour share little aroma chemistry, yet 122,858 recipes mention both: they likely 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
- Tomatoes
- Break down into the smooth, flavorful body of the sauce.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the sauce.
- Cream
- Adds richness and body, giving the sauce a creamy texture.
- All-purpose flour
- Thickens the cream and stabilizes the sauce so it stays smooth.
The step that matters
Do not let it boil after adding the flour. Once flour and cream are stirred in, boiling can cause the sauce to thicken unevenly or curdle, and the flour's thickening power and the cream's smoothness are lost.
“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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