Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓
Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
In a pot, combine the onion, garlic, celery, bay leaves, and parsley.
Add olive oil, salt, and pepper.
Stir in the chopped tomatoes.
Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the juice thickens.
Strain the sauce through a sieve and it's ready to use.
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.
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Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together29,058 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,539 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,810 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Garlic + olivetop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together25,665 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
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, moisture and acidity that cook down into the sauce.
- Olive oil
- Adds fat and carries aroma from the aromatics into the sauce.
- Onion
- Adds savory sweetness and depth as it softens into the base.
- Garlic
- Contributes pungent aroma that mellows during cooking.
The step that matters
Cook until the juice thickens. Tomatoes are mostly water, so cooking them slowly over medium heat lets excess moisture evaporate and concentrates flavor. Stirring occasionally helps prevent scorching on the bottom of the pot.
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, garlic, celery, parsley, olive, pepper, tomato):
- Thymefits better
- Cuminfits better
- Basilfits better
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against onion, garlic, celery, parsley, olive, pepper, tomato. 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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