Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 7,874 recipes mention both. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash the tomatoes and cut them into pieces without peeling.
Place them in a saucepan with salt, cayenne pepper, allspice, cloves, and mace.
Cook and finish
Stew slowly until soft, then pass through a sieve to remove skins and spices.
Return the mixture to the saucepan and boil for 5 minutes.
Add the butter rolled in flour, let it boil once, then 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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Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together7,874 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
-
Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
-
Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together6,395 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
-
Clove + macetop 6% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together8,400 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
-
Allspice + macetop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together3,189 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
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, acidity and flavour of the sauce as they break down.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, glossy mouthfeel to the finished sauce.
- Flour
- Thickens the sauce slightly when rolled with butter and stirred in during boiling.
The step that matters
Add the butter rolled in flour, let it boil once. Flour-coated butter must be stirred into a hot liquid and brought to a boil so the starch cooks and thickens the sauce. Boiling too long or not stirring can leave lumps or a floury taste.
Flavor stand-ins for the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, pepper, allspice, clove, butter, flour):
- Cinnamonbetter flavor fit
- Thymebetter flavor fit
- Nutmegbetter flavor fit
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, allspice, clove, 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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