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Escalloped Tomatoes and Onions

A baked dish of sliced tomatoes and onions layered with bread crumbs and seasoned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Escalloped Tomatoes and Onions

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Peel and thinly slice the onions.

  2. Sauté the onions in butter or oil without browning.

  3. Peel and slice the tomatoes.

Layer and bake

  1. Butter a baking dish and add a layer of tomatoes.

  2. Season the tomatoes with salt and pepper, then cover with bread crumbs.

  3. Add a layer of sautéed onions on top.

  4. Repeat the layers, finishing with bread crumbs on top.

  5. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 30 to 45 minutes.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Provide the juicy liquid that moistens the crumbs and softens during baking.
Onions
Add savory sweetness and aroma that deepens as they cook gently.
Bread crumbs
Absorb tomato juice and form a soft, lightly crisp topping layer.
Butter or oil
Carries flavor and helps the onions soften without sticking to the pan.

The step that matters

Sauté the onions without browning. Browned onions turn bitter and darker, and they keep cooking in the oven, so gentle softening keeps the flavor mild and sweet.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, butter, pepper, bread. 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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