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 ↓
Tomato Preserves
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the tomatoes
Pour boiling water over the tomatoes and let them stand until the skin cracks.
Peel the tomatoes and quarter the large ones.
Macerate
Combine the prepared tomatoes with sugar and let the mixture stand overnight to toughen.
Cook and set
Cook the mixture, skimming off any foam and adjusting the syrup thickness to your preference.
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 main fruit body, moisture, and tart acidity to the preserves.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and draws water out of the tomatoes to form a thick syrup.
The step that matters
Cooking the mixture. Sugar concentrates as water evaporates, so the syrup thickens while cooking. Skimming foam keeps the preserves clear, and stopping at the right point sets the texture. Overcooking can make them too stiff.
“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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