Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 17,451 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓
Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
Put the quart can of tomatoes in a stew pan over the fire.
Add the slice of onion, cloves, pepper, and salt.
Boil for about 20 minutes, then remove from heat and strain through a sieve.
Thicken and serve
In another pan, melt the butter.
Sprinkle in the flour as the butter melts, stirring until it browns and froths slightly.
Mix the tomato pulp with the butter and flour mixture, and it's ready to serve.
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 + peppertop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together20,633 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + clovetop 12% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together3,474 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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 and flavor of the sauce.
- Butter
- Carries the flour and adds richness to the sauce.
- Flour
- Cooked in the butter, it thickens the sauce as it combines with the tomato pulp.
The step that matters
Browning the butter and flour. Stirring the flour into the melting butter until it browns and froths cooks out its raw taste and builds a nutty flavor. Stopping too early leaves a pasty, floury taste in the finished sauce.
Flavor stand-ins for the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, clove, pepper, butter, flour):
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Eggplantbetter flavor fit
- Okrabetter flavor fit
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, clove, pepper, butter, flour. 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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