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Tomato Butter

A sauce made by cooking tomatoes with butter and seasonings until it becomes a pulp, then sieving and reheating.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tomato Butter

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Break the tomatoes into pieces.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the tomatoes, butter, and seasonings.

  3. Cook until it forms a pulp.

  4. Rub the mixture through a fine sieve.

  5. Return to the pan and reheat, stirring for 1-2 minutes until it boils.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Pepper + white peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Tomato + buttertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Ripe tomatoes
Provide the main body and flavor of the sauce as they break down into pulp.
Fresh butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel that gives the sauce its body.

The step that matters

Rub the mixture through a fine sieve. Pressing the cooked pulp through a fine sieve removes seeds and skins, giving the sauce a smooth texture. Skipping or rushing this leaves the sauce grainy.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, butter, sugar, pepper):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Basilfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, butter, sugar, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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