Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 9,057 recipes mention both. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓
Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the tomatoes
Halve the tomatoes, squeeze out the juice, strain, and set aside.
Simmer and strain
In a stewpan, combine the prepared tomatoes, stock, onion, bouquet garni, and a little salt and pepper.
Simmer gently for 1 hour, then pass through a fine sieve.
Thicken and serve
Melt the butter in a pan, stir in the flour, and cook for 2-3 minutes.
Add the tomato pulp and enough strained tomato juice to achieve the desired consistency.
Add a pinch of sugar, season to taste, heat thoroughly, 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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Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together9,057 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together11,585 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Tomato + thymetop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together2,370 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together11,171 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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 liquid of the sauce.
- Butter
- Enriches the sauce with fat and rounds out its flavour.
- Flour
- Cooked with the butter to form a roux that thickens the sauce.
- Good stock
- Adds savoury depth and liquid to the simmering tomatoes.
The step that matters
Cooking the butter and flour. Cooking the roux for 2-3 minutes removes the raw floury taste and lets the flour thicken evenly instead of leaving lumps or a pasty flavour.
Flavor stand-ins for the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, parsley, thyme, butter, flour, sugar, pepper):
- Shallotbetter flavor fit
- Okrabetter flavor fit
- Carrotbetter flavor fit
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, parsley, thyme, butter, flour, sugar, pepper. 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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