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Fried Tomatoes I

Fried tomatoes are sliced tomatoes seasoned, breaded, fried, and served with a sweet cream sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Fried Tomatoes I

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Cut ripe tomatoes with skins on into 1-inch thick slices.

  2. Sprinkle salt and sugar on both sides of the tomato slices.

  3. Dredge the slices in cracker crumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat equal parts of butter and lard in a pan.

  2. Fry the tomato slices on both sides until brown.

  3. Carefully remove the fried tomatoes to a hot platter.

  4. Pour sweet cream into the remaining fat in the pan.

  5. Boil for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.

  6. Pour the cream sauce over the tomatoes on the platter.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Tomato + buttertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Tomato + creamtop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,034 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Ripe tomatoes
Provide the main body of the dish, softening slightly while frying to a tender interior.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, browned coating that protects the tomato and adds texture.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the coating brown in the pan.
Lard
Provides a high-temperature frying fat that browns the crumb coating evenly.
Sweet cream
Forms a rich sauce with the pan fat that coats the fried tomatoes.

The step that matters

Fry the tomato slices on both sides until brown. The crumb coating needs enough hot fat to brown without burning. Moderate heat lets the tomato warm through while the crumbs toast, giving a crisp crust and a soft interior.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, cream):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Sweet potatofits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, cream. 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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