Why it works: Clove and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,677 recipes mention both. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓
Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and cook
Cut the tomatoes into pieces.
Combine the tomatoes with vinegar and other ingredients in a pot.
Cook until the tomatoes are tender.
Strain and bottle
Mash the mixture in a mortar.
Strain the mixture through a sieve.
Heat the strained mixture to boiling for a few minutes.
Bottle the sauce while hot.
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 + shallottop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,677 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Tomato + clovetop 12% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together3,474 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
-
Vinegar + shallottop 12% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together2,374 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Tomato + shallottop 12% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together583 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together20,806 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
- Ripe tomatoes
- Provide the main body, moisture and bulk of the sauce.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that gives the sauce its tangy flavour and helps preserve it.
- Shallots
- Add a mild aromatic onion-like flavour to the sauce.
- Sugar
- Balances the acidity of the vinegar and tomatoes with sweetness.
The step that matters
Bottle the sauce while hot. Heating the strained sauce to boiling and bottling it hot helps drive out air and reduce spoilage risk in sealed containers. Letting it cool before bottling can allow microbes to grow.
Flavor stand-ins for the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, vinegar, sugar, shallot):
- Tarragonbetter flavor fit
- Capersbetter flavor fit
- Garlicbetter flavor fit
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, vinegar, sugar, shallot. 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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