Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 17,923 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Melt the butter in a pan and fry the chopped onion until soft.
Add the roughly cut tomatoes, seasonings, and cornflour mixed with the stock. Stir until the mixture boils.
Cook for a few minutes, then strain the sauce.
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 + peppertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together20,633 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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.
- Cornflour
- Thickens the sauce as it heats and boils, giving it body.
- Onion
- Softened in butter to add sweetness and aroma to the base.
- Butter
- Fat that softens the onion and carries flavour into the sauce.
The step that matters
Stirring cornflour into the boil. Cornflour must be mixed smoothly with cold stock before adding, and stirred while the liquid heats. Stirring prevents lumps and lets the starch swell evenly and thicken the sauce.
Flavor stand-ins for the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, butter, pepper, sugar):
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Potatobetter flavor fit
- Carrotbetter flavor fit
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, butter, pepper, sugar. 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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