Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and 124,287 recipes mention both. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the tomatoes
If the tomatoes are hard, boil them for 5 minutes.
Slice the tomatoes and rub them through a sieve.
Make the sauce
In a small saucepan, melt the butter.
Stir in the flour and sugar until well combined.
Pour in the tomato juice and stir until it boils.
Season with salt to taste.
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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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Tomato + buttertop 22% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together6,918 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Tomato + flourtop 22% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together7,065 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour share little aroma chemistry, yet 124,287 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.
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, flavor and liquid for the sauce.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat that carries flavor and smooths the sauce.
- Flour
- Thickens the tomato liquid as it cooks, giving the sauce body.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the tomatoes.
The step that matters
Stirring the flour into the melted butter. Stirring the flour in fully before adding liquid coats the starch grains with fat, which prevents lumps and helps the sauce thicken evenly when the tomato juice is added.
“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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