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Tomato Rarebit

A cheese and tomato sauce served hot over toasted bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Fannie Merritt Farmer · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Tomato Rarebit

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Put butter in a chafing-dish and melt it.

  2. Add flour to the melted butter and stir.

  3. Pour in the thin cream gradually, stirring continuously.

  4. When the mixture thickens, add the stewed and strained tomatoes mixed with soda.

  5. Add the finely cut cheese, beaten eggs, salt, mustard, and cayenne to taste.

Serve

  1. Serve the sauce hot over Graham Toast as soon as the cheese has melted.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

879Calories
28 gProtein
33 gFat
115 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 10 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Cheese1 oz (28g) cheddar113
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

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

By Fannie Merritt Farmer. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  3. Cheese + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,805 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,482 recipes

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

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Enriches the sauce and carries the flour, adding richness to the base.
Flour
Thickens the butter and cream into a smooth, stable sauce.
Thin cream
Adds moisture and richness, giving the sauce a smooth, creamy body.
Stewed and strained tomatoes
Provides moisture, acidity and tomato flavour to the sauce.
Soda
Neutralises some tomato acidity, mellowing the sauce's sharpness.
Cheese
Provides the main flavour and, melted, gives the sauce its characteristic richness.
Eggs
Enrich and thicken the sauce as they set gently with the heat.

The step that matters

Adding the eggs and cheese. Once the cheese has melted, the sauce should be served promptly. Eggs can scramble or curdle if overheated, and cheese can turn stringy or oily when held too long or heated too hard.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, cream, cheese, egg, mustard):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Horseradishfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, cream, cheese, egg, mustard. 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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