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Stewed Corn with Tomatoes

A stew of tomatoes and corn, cooked slowly with butter, onion, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and corn match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,099 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Stewed Corn with Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Scald and peel the tomatoes, then cut them into pieces.

  2. Combine the tomatoes, 1 tablespoon of butter, and the onion slice in a porcelain-lined kettle.

  3. Stew slowly for 30 minutes.

Add the corn

  1. Husk the corn and score down the center of each row of grains, then press out the pulp.

  2. Add the corn pulp to the tomatoes and cook for 10 minutes.

  3. Watch carefully to prevent the corn from settling and scorching.

  4. Stir in the remaining tablespoon of butter and season with salt and pepper.

  5. Serve very 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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Tomato + corntop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Break down into the liquid base that forms the body of the stew.
Corn
Adds sweetness and starchy body as its pulp thickens the stew.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the finished stew.

The step that matters

Watching the corn while it cooks. Corn pulp is starchy and dense, so it settles to the bottom of the kettle and scorches easily. Stirring and keeping heat gentle prevents sticking and burnt flavor.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, butter, corn, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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