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Summer Tomato Sauce

A sauce made from tomatoes and thyme, boiled and peeled, then simmered to desired consistency.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and thyme are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 2,370 recipes mention both. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Summer Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. If using a food mill, do not peel the tomatoes.

  2. If not using a food mill, boil water in a large saucepan.

  3. Prepare a bowl of ice water.

  4. In batches, add tomatoes to boiling water for 1 minute to loosen skins.

  5. Transfer to ice water.

Cut and cook

  1. Peel the skins with a paring knife, core, and quarter the tomatoes.

  2. If not peeling, just core and quarter them.

  3. Cook the tomatoes in a large nonreactive pot or roasting pan with thyme until desired consistency is reached.

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.

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.

  1. Tomato + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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, moisture and flavour of the sauce as they break down during cooking.
Fresh thyme leaves
Add an aromatic, herbal note that complements the tomatoes.

The step that matters

Blanching and shocking the tomatoes. Brief boiling loosens the skins so they peel easily, and the ice bath stops the cooking so the flesh stays firm rather than mushy. Skipping the ice bath lets the tomatoes keep cooking and softening.

“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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