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Tomatoes and Onions

A simple vegetable stew of onions, tomatoes, bell peppers, seasoned with salt, pepper, baking soda, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Tomatoes and Onions

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Slice and boil the onions in minimal water until tender.

  2. Peel and add the tomatoes and sliced bell peppers to the onions.

  3. Season with salt, pepper, and baking soda.

  4. Add butter and boil until all ingredients are tender.

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

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

  2. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Onions
Break down into sweetness and body as they soften in the stew.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and liquid that help form the stew's sauce.
Green bell peppers
Contribute mild, slightly bitter flavour and tender texture to the stew.
Baking soda
Raises pH, which softens vegetables and can deepen their colour.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavour and smooths the sauce.

The step that matters

Adding baking soda. Baking soda is alkaline and raises the pH of the stew. Too much can give the vegetables a soapy taste and an unpleasant texture, so measure it carefully and season in small amounts.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, pepper, 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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