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Fried and Broiled Tomatoes

Fried and broiled tomato slices served with a butter‑milk sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Fried and Broiled Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Cut tomatoes into thick slices, about ¼ inch thick.

  2. Season with salt and pepper.

  3. Dredge in flour or roll in egg and bread crumbs.

Fry or broil

  1. Fry in a mixture of hot butter and lard until browned on both sides.

  2. Alternatively, broil on a well-greased grill, seasoning afterward like beefsteak.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. For the sauce, cream butter and whisk in milk and 1 tablespoon flour.

  2. Add beaten egg, salt, pepper, and a pinch of mace; simmer until thickened.

  3. Pour sauce onto a hot serving dish and arrange tomatoes in the center.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  4. Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

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

  5. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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 and juicy flesh that softens and browns when fried or broiled.
Flour
Forms a light coating that browns in the fat and helps the sauce thicken.
Egg
Binds the bread crumb coating and thickens the sauce as it simmers.
Bread crumbs
Create a crisp, golden crust around the tomato slices when fried.
Butter
Adds richness and browning to the frying fat and body to the sauce.
Milk
Gives the sauce a creamy liquid base that thickens with flour and egg.

The step that matters

Simmer the sauce until thickened. Egg proteins set when heated, but if the sauce boils hard the egg can curdle and turn grainy. Gentle simmering keeps it smooth while the flour thickens it.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, pepper, flour, egg, bread, butter, milk):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, flour, egg, bread, butter, milk. 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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