Why it works: Tomato and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 33% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,667 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Tomato Preserves
Ingredients
Directions
Scald the tomatoes a few at a time, then remove the skins and cores.
Cut each tomato in half to remove the seeds using your thumb.
Dip the tomatoes in a bucket of cold water to rinse off remaining seeds.
Squeeze the tomatoes in your hand to prepare them for the preserving kettle.
Melt and boil an equal amount of sugar and tomatoes to create a syrup.
Add the tomatoes to the syrup and boil until they are transparent.
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.
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Tomato + sugartop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,667 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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