Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 17,451 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓
Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the tomatoes, onion, and cloves for 10 minutes.
In a small frying pan, heat the butter and add the flour. Stir until smooth and brown, then add the cooked tomatoes.
Season with salt and pepper, 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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Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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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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Tomato + clovetop 12% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together3,474 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Tomatoes
- Form the body and main flavor of the sauce as they cook down.
- Butter
- Provides fat and richness, and carries the flour into a smooth roux.
- Flour
- Thickens the sauce as it cooks with the butter and tomatoes.
The step that matters
Stir the butter and flour until smooth and brown. A roux must be stirred constantly so the flour cooks evenly without lumps or scorching. Cooking it until browned adds a deeper, nuttier flavor and removes raw flour taste before the tomatoes are added.
Flavor stand-ins for the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, butter, flour, clove, pepper):
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Eggplantbetter flavor fit
- Okrabetter flavor fit
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, butter, flour, clove, pepper. 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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