Why it works: Tomato and bread match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,013 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Make the tomato mixture
Combine 1 pt strained stewed tomatoes, 1¼ cup stale bread crumbs, ¼-½ cup sweet cream, and salt.
Let crumbs stand in tomato until well softened, then rub through a colander.
Add cream and salt.
Bake and serve
Bake in a serving dish until delicately browned on top and well heated through.
Let stand in a warm place for 10–20 minutes before serving.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Tomato + breadtop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,013 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Cream + breadtop 13% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together5,782 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cream + tomatotop 21% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together2,034 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Stale bread crumbs
- Absorb tomato liquid and thicken the mixture into a soft, spoonable body.
- Sweet cream
- Adds richness and fat, giving a smoother texture and softer flavour to the tomatoes.
- Stewed tomatoes (in the method)
- Provide the main liquid, acidity and flavour, and soften the crumbs as they stand.
The step that matters
Letting the crumbs stand in the tomato. The crumbs need time to absorb the tomato liquid and soften fully. If they stay dry or lumpy, the texture stays gritty, so rubbing the mixture through a colander after softening gives a smooth result.
“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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