Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 27,047 recipes mention both. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Skin the tomatoes and place them in a saucepan with a little water or gravy.
Cook over medium heat until soft, then beat them up.
Add vinegar, lemon juice, cayenne pepper, and salt.
If desired, stir in the beaten egg yolk.
Strain the sauce if preferred.
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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Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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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 + lemontop 11% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together4,592 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together27,814 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Tomato + vinegartop 16% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together5,063 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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 that cooks down into the sauce.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the tomatoes' sweetness.
- Lemon juice
- Adds further acidity and freshness, sharpening the overall flavour.
- Egg yolk
- Adds richness and, when stirred in, helps thicken and enrich the sauce.
The step that matters
Stirring in the egg yolk. Egg yolk thickens when heated, but if it is added to very hot sauce without being beaten and stirred well, it can scramble into small lumps. Beating it first and adding it gradually helps keep the sauce smooth.
Flavor stand-ins for the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, vinegar, pepper, egg):
- Cherryabout as good a flavor fit
- Lemonthe original
- Limeabout as good a flavor fit
- Plumabout as good a flavor fit
Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, vinegar, pepper, egg. 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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