Why it works: Carrot and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 3,606 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
Melt the butter in a saucepan.
Add the diced bacon, sliced onion, and diced carrot; fry until softened.
Stir in the chopped tomatoes and stock, then simmer until tender.
Pass the mixture through a fine sieve.
Thicken and serve
If a thicker sauce is desired, return to the saucepan and bring to a boil.
Blend the cornflour with a little cold water and stir it in.
Boil for three minutes and serve.
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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Carrot + tomatotop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together3,606 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together21,601 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together20,633 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + tomatotop 22% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together6,918 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Tomatoes
- Provide the main body, acidity and flavour of the sauce.
- Bacon
- Adds fat and savoury flavour as it renders into the base.
- Cornflour
- Thickens the sauce as it heats with liquid, giving body.
- Stock
- Supplies the liquid that cooks the vegetables and forms the sauce.
The step that matters
Blend the cornflour with cold water first. Starch added directly to hot liquid clumps instead of dispersing. Mixing it with cold water first lets the granules separate, so the boiled sauce thickens smoothly.
Flavor stand-ins for the carrot
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, onion, tomato):
- Potatobetter flavor fit
- Okrabetter flavor fit
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Carrotthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, onion, tomato. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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