Why it works: Ketchup and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,099 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
In a dripping pan, add enough boiling water to make the required quantity of sauce.
Thicken the water with flour stirred smooth with a little water until it reaches the consistency of thin gravy.
Add the strained canned tomatoes, tomato ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, salt, and pepper.
Cook for several minutes, stirring constantly, and serve very hot.
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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Ketchup + saucetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,099 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + lemontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,592 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Flour + ketchuptop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,435 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
- Flour
- Thickens the boiling water into a thin gravy-like sauce.
- Tomato ketchup
- Adds sweetness, acidity and tomato flavor to the sauce.
- Strained canned tomatoes
- Provides the main tomato flavor and moisture of the sauce.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the sauce's flavor.
The step that matters
Stir the flour in smoothly before adding it to the water. Flour added dry or unevenly clumps and stays lumpy when heated. Mixing it into a smooth slurry with a little cold water first lets the starch disperse, so it thickens the liquid evenly as it heats.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, flour, tomato, ketchup, sauce, pepper):
- Lemonthe original
- Limefits about as well
- Avocadofits less well
- Grapefits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against fish, flour, tomato, ketchup, sauce, pepper. 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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