Why it works: Tomato and shallot work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and 583 recipes mention both. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut the tomatoes in half and squeeze out the seeds.
Make the sauce
Stew the tomatoes with the shallot and chilies in the sauce until tender.
Pass the mixture through a wire sieve and then a fine sieve.
Add the coarse sea salt 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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Tomato + shallottop 12% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together583 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Shallot + saucetop 14% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together1,303 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Tomato + saucetop 15% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together5,469 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
- Ripe tomatoes
- Provide the main body and acidity that form the base of the sauce.
- Brown sauce or espagnole sauce
- Supplies the rich, savoury stock base in which the tomatoes are stewed.
- Shallot
- Adds a mild, aromatic sweetness that softens into the sauce as it stews.
- Chilies
- Add heat and a pungent aroma to the stewed sauce.
The step that matters
Stew until tender. Stewing must go long enough for the tomatoes and shallot to soften fully, so that passing them through the sieves yields a smooth sauce; undercooked pieces will not pass easily and leave a coarse texture.
Flavor stand-ins for the shallot
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, sauce):
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Eggplantbetter flavor fit
- Okrabetter flavor fit
- Shallotthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, sauce. 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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