Why it works: Butter and meat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,594 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Sauce Tomate. — Love-Apple Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
If the sauce is not thick enough, boil it again.
Mix a little meat gravy into the puree.
Just before serving, add the butter and let it melt in 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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Butter + meattop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,594 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Puree
- Forms the bulk of the sauce, giving it body and its main flavor.
- Butter
- Melts into the sauce, adding richness and a glossy finish.
- Meat gravy
- Adds savory, meaty depth to the puree.
The step that matters
Adding the butter just before serving. Butter melts and emulsifies into the sauce when it is stirred in off the heat. If the sauce keeps boiling after the butter goes in, the fat can separate out, leaving the sauce greasy and broken.
“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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