Why it works: Tomato and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 3,377 recipes mention both. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the canned tomatoes for 15 minutes.
Pass the tomatoes through a coarse strainer.
In a separate bowl, mix the butter and flour to form a smooth paste.
Add the paste to the strained tomatoes and cook until thick.
Season with salt and pepper.
If desired, add onion, celery, and bay leaf while cooking.
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 + celerytop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together3,377 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together16,012 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together18,518 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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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).
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.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, helping the sauce feel smooth on the palate.
- Flour
- Thickens the strained tomatoes as it cooks into a smooth paste.
The step that matters
Adding the butter and flour paste. Flour must be fully blended into the butter before it goes in, or lumps form. Cooking the sauce after adding it lets the starch swell and thicken the tomatoes evenly.
Flavor stand-ins for the onion
The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, butter, flour, pepper, celery):
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Carrotbetter flavor fit
- Okrabetter flavor fit
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, butter, flour, pepper, celery. 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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