Skip to main content
Main

Tomato Puree

A smooth tomato puree made with tomatoes, stock, celery, onion, butter, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Tomato Puree

Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Tomato Puree

Ingredients

Directions

Simmer the base

  1. Combine tomatoes, brown stock, bay leaf, parsley, celery, and sugar in a saucepan and simmer thoroughly.

Make the onion mixture

  1. Melt butter in a sauté pan and add onion; cook until the onion is soft but not browned.

  2. Add one tablespoon of flour to the onion mixture and mix well.

Combine and strain

  1. Combine the onion mixture with the tomatoes and season with salt and pepper.

  2. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve or strainer.

  3. Heat again and serve.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

  1. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 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

Tomatoes
Provides the main body, bright acidity and core flavour of the puree.
Brown stock
Adds savoury depth and the liquid that carries the tomato flavour.
Butter
Adds fat that carries aroma and gives the puree a smoother mouthfeel.
Onion
Softened gently, it adds sweetness and an aromatic base to the puree.
Flour (in the method)
Starch thickens the liquid as it cooks with the onion and butter.
Celery
Contributes a subtle herbal, aromatic background flavour during simmering.

The step that matters

Cook the onion soft but not browned. Browned onion turns bitter and darker, changing the flavour and colour of the puree. Gentle cooking softens the onion and releases its sweetness without caramelising it.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, celery, butter, parsley, sugar, pepper):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, celery, butter, parsley, sugar, pepper. 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.

More tomato puree recipes

Ham 4 See all 38 →

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesTomato BisqueTomato Bisque61 recipes