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Stewed Tomatoes

A dish of tomatoes cooked with vinegar, butter, sugar, and seasonings, served as a side or accompaniment.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Elizabeth Lyles Wilson (1860–1924) · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and asparagus match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 400 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Stewed Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Stewed tomatoes

  1. Use 1 can stewed tomatoes.

  2. Add 2 tablespoons vinegar.

  3. Add 1 cup sugar.

  4. Add 1 tablespoon butter.

  5. If fresh tomatoes, peel, cut into pieces, add sugar, a little salt, and the vinegar.

  6. Cook until tender and thick.

  7. Add butter and serve with dinner.

Stuffed tomatoes

  1. Select tomatoes near same size.

  2. Allow one tomato for each person.

  3. Wash, wipe and cut off top, scoop out center and fill the cavity with tomato cut fine, seasoned highly with salt, pepper, onion, bread crumbs and a little chopped celery.

  4. Cold meat ground can be used with this mixture.

  5. Put tomatoes in pan with a little butter on each.

  6. Run in oven and bake twenty minutes.

  7. Cut the tomatoes in halves if large enough.

  8. Scrape out some of pulp and add to the mixture.

  9. When mixed, fill tomatoes, place in buttered tin, season highly and bake in moderate oven twenty minutes.

  10. Scald tomatoes and peel.

  11. Put in baking pan, add sugar, butter and water and bake until done.

Asparagus and serving

  1. Wash, scrape and let stand in cold water.

  2. Tie several stalks together and cook standing with bloom end up.

  3. Serve on toast with cream sauce poured over it.

  4. Garnish with crisp parsley.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

737Calories
26 gProtein
23 gFat
108 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 9 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Cheese1 oz (28g) cheddar113
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Asparagus6 spears (90g)27
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Mushroom1/2 cup sliced (35g)15
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Mary Elizabeth Lyles Wilson (1860–1924). 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. See the original page.

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. Mushroom + asparagustop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together400 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

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

  3. Tomato + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,719 recipes

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

  4. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Form the main body of each dish and soften into a juicy, tender base when cooked.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the tomatoes brown lightly in the oven.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the sugar.
Sugar (in the method)
Adds sweetness that offsets the acidity of the tomatoes and vinegar.
Bread crumbs
Absorb tomato juices and give the stuffing body and texture.

The step that matters

Cook until tender and thick. Tomatoes contain a lot of water. Cooking them long enough lets that liquid evaporate and the sauce thicken, while too short a time leaves it thin and watery.

Swap the asparagus

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, butter, bread, cheese, tomato, mushroom):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Onionfits about as well
  4. Asparagusthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, butter, bread, cheese, tomato, mushroom. 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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