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
Prepare the sauce base
Melt the butter in a saucepan.
Cut the bacon into small pieces and fry it with the sliced onion and carrot.
Add the tomatoes and stock, and simmer until tender.
Strain and thicken
Rub the mixture through a fine sieve.
If 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.
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.
-
Carrot + tomatotop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together3,606 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together21,601 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together20,633 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
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, flavour and acidity of the sauce.
- Butter
- Adds richness and carries flavour as the vegetables cook gently.
- Bacon
- Adds savoury, smoky flavour as it fries with the vegetables.
- Cornflour
- Thickens the sauce when mixed with cold water and boiled.
The step that matters
Blend the cornflour with cold water before stirring it in. Cornflour clumps if added dry or straight into hot liquid. Mixing it with cold water first lets the starch disperse evenly, so it thickens smoothly when the sauce boils.
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.
More tomato sauce recipes
You might also like
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Carrot Soup134 recipes
Cream of Tomato Soup107 recipes
Tomato Bisque61 recipesThe Sunday pairing: one pairing, the chemistry behind it, and how to cook it. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account for sign-in; Pro adds the full results and chemistry.