Why it works: Tomato and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 33% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,667 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Canned Tomatoes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Scald tomatoes, skin them, and drain off all the juice.
Fill the can until it weighs 2 pounds.
Pack and seal
Add 1 large tablespoon (2 tablespoons) of syrup made from ½ cup water, 1½ pounds coarse sea salt, and 1½ pounds sugar.
Seal the cans and boil for 30 minutes.
Vent and finish
Remove the cans from the water, open the vent for gas escape, and seal again.
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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Tomato + sugartop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,667 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
- Tomatoes
- Provide the bulk of the contents and the tart, fruity flavour of the finished tomatoes.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the syrup and balances the acidity of the tomatoes.
The step that matters
Seal the cans and boil for 30 minutes. Heating sealed cans to a full boil destroys microorganisms that could spoil the contents. A sealed can that is under-processed may not stay safe in storage, so the cans must stay sealed and boil for the full time.
“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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