Why it works: Tomato and capsicum match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,520 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the tomatoes
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Place the tomatoes in the oven for a few minutes until the skins loosen.
Remove the skins from the tomatoes.
Mash the tomato pulp.
Make the sauce
In a pot, combine the tomato pulp, vinegar, chili vinegar, shallots, and garlic.
Boil the mixture until tender.
Strain the pulp through a fine sieve to remove seeds.
Add capsicums and chilies to the vinegar.
Boil for 10 minutes.
Strain the capsicums and chilies from the vinegar.
Combine the strained pulp with the vinegar.
Boil until thickened to a cream-like consistency.
Season with coarse sea salt to taste.
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 + capsicumtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,520 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + garlictop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,076 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
-
Shallot + garlictop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,000 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Shallot + clovetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,677 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Shallot + capsicumtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,984 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Tomatoes
- Provide the bulk of the sauce and its fresh, sweet-tart flavour.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps keep the sauce stable.
- Shallots
- Add a mild savoury sweetness and aroma as they cook into the sauce.
- Garlic
- Adds pungent aroma that mellows as it cooks.
- Chilies
- Bring heat and pepper flavour to the sauce.
- Capsicums
- Add sweetness and body, infusing flavour into the vinegar.
The step that matters
Boil until thickened to a cream-like consistency. Reduction concentrates the sauce as water evaporates. Stopping too early leaves it thin, while overcooking can scorch the sugars and make it bitter.
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, vinegar, shallot, garlic, capsicum):
- Cuminfits better
- Tarragonfits better
- Capersfits better
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, vinegar, shallot, garlic, capsicum. 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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