Name: Tomato Sauce
Ingredients: 1 can small tomato soup; ½ green pepper; a little onion; ½ cup white sauce

Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 17,923 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

1 can small tomato soup
½ green pepper
a little onion
½ cup white sauce

Directions

Season the tomato soup with chopped green pepper and onion, then heat the mixture and serve hot.

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.

Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together20,633 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + saucetop 15% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together5,469 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Onion + saucetop 19% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together10,474 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Onion and sauce share little aroma chemistry, yet 10,474 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Tomato soup: Forms the base of the sauce and supplies most of its liquid and tomato flavor.
White sauce: Adds creaminess and body, softening the acidity of the tomato base.
Green pepper: Contributes a fresh, slightly bitter vegetable flavor to the sauce.
Onion: Adds savory depth and aroma as it mellows with the tomato.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, pepper, sauce):

Capsicumbetter flavor fit
Eggplantbetter flavor fit
Okrabetter flavor fit
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, sauce. 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.