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Tomato Puree

A thick tomato puree made by simmering tomatoes, onion, and milk, then thickened with butter, flour, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Tomato Puree

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Tomato Puree

Ingredients

Directions

Make the tomato base

  1. Combine the sliced tomatoes and minced onion in a pot with boiling water and boil for 30 minutes.

  2. Strain the mixture and rub it through a colander to create a pulp.

  3. Add pepper, salt, and sugar to the tomato mixture and simmer for 5 minutes.

Make the milk sauce

  1. Boil the milk with baking soda.

  2. Stir in the butter and flour, keeping it hot after one boil.

Combine and serve

  1. Pour the tomato mixture into a serving bowl, stir in the bread crumbs, and then add the thickened milk.

  2. Serve immediately.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  4. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Red tomatoes
Form the main body of the puree, providing the bulk of the flavor and liquid.
Milk
Adds richness and creaminess, and thickens with the butter and flour.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the thickened milk, giving a smoother mouthfeel.
Flour
Thickens the milk mixture as it is heated with the butter.
Dried bread crumbs
Add body and help thicken the tomato mixture once stirred in.
Sugar
Balances the acidity of the tomatoes with a touch of sweetness.

The step that matters

Boil the milk with baking soda. Baking soda raises the pH of the milk, which can cause it to curdle or separate when heated. Adding it to boiling milk and then combining it gently with the tomato base helps keep the mixture smooth.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Sweet potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, milk, butter, flour, sugar, pepper, bread. 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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