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Scalloped Tomatoes

A baked tomato dish layered with bread crumbs, butter, salt, pepper, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Scalloped Tomatoes

Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓

Scalloped Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Butter the sides and bottom of a pudding dish.

  2. Add a layer of bread crumbs to the bottom.

Layer and bake

  1. Layer sliced tomatoes on top, sprinkle with salt, pepper, bits of butter, and a little sugar.

  2. Repeat layers until full, finishing with a top layer of sliced tomatoes and bits of butter.

  3. Bake covered until cooked through, then uncover and brown quickly.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Bread + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

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

  4. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread crumbs
Soak up tomato juices and give the dish a soft, layered body.
Sliced tomatoes
Provide the main moisture and acidic, juicy flavor as they cook down.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the top brown during the final uncovered bake.
White sugar
Balances the tomatoes' acidity with a touch of sweetness.

The step that matters

Bake covered, then uncover and brown quickly. Covering traps steam so the tomatoes cook through and the crumbs soften. Uncovering for a short time browns the top; leaving it covered too long leaves it pale and wet, while over-browning dries it out.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Sweet potatofits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, bread, pepper, sugar. 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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