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Stewed Tomatoes

A simple tomato stew made with butter, vinegar, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stewed Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and stew

  1. Slice the tomatoes and place them in a lined saucepan.

  2. Season the tomatoes with pepper and salt, and add small pieces of butter on top.

  3. Cover the saucepan and stew for 20 to 25 minutes until the tomatoes are tender.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the vinegar and stir two or three times before serving.

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

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

  2. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Tomato + vinegartop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,063 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Break down while stewing to form the soft, saucy body of the dish.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel as it melts into the tomato juices.
Vinegar
Adds a sharp acidity that brightens the flavour of the stewed tomatoes.

The step that matters

Covered stewing until tender. Stewing gently with the lid on keeps the tomatoes from drying out and lets them soften evenly. Cooking too hard or too long can turn them mushy and dull in flavour.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Cabbagefits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, butter, vinegar. 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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