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Curried Tomatoes

A tomato dish flavored with curry powder, apple, onion, and gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,633 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Curried Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the tomatoes.

Cook the tomatoes

  1. Bake or lightly fry the sliced tomatoes.

Make the curry

  1. Fry the grated apple and chopped onion in hot butter until tender.

  2. Add the curry powder and a few spoonfuls of thick gravy.

  3. Simmer for a few minutes.

  4. Stir in the sliced tomatoes and lemon juice.

  5. Let it thicken.

  6. Serve 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 + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,592 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + appletop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together548 recipes

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

  4. Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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 tart, juicy flavour of the dish.
Apple
Adds sweetness and soft texture that softens as it cooks down.
Onion
Builds savoury depth as it softens in the butter.
Curry powder
Supplies the spiced aroma that defines the dish.
Thick gravy
Adds body and helps the sauce thicken.

The step that matters

Let it thicken. Simmering reduces the liquid and the gravy's starch thickens the sauce. Stopping too early leaves it thin, while overcooking can make the tomatoes break down into a dull, pasty mixture.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Mangofits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, onion, lemon, butter. 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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