Why it works: Bread and butter 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 ↓
Baked Tomatoes
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
Place the peeled tomatoes in a baking dish.
Assemble and bake
Sprinkle the bread crumbs, butter, pepper, salt, and onion (if using) over the tomatoes.
Sift cornmeal over the top.
Bake for 2 to 3 hours, until tender.
If the tomatoes are acidic, add sugar instead of salt.
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.
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,633 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,013 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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 main body and moisture that softens into the baked base.
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb juices and help form a light, soft topping as they cook.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness and helps the topping brown during baking.
- Cornmeal
- Adds a slightly grainy texture to the topping as it bakes.
The step that matters
Baking for a long, slow time at low heat. Baking at a low 300°F for 2 to 3 hours lets the tomatoes soften and concentrate gently without drying or scorching the topping, so checking for tenderness matters.
Swap the onion
The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, bread, butter, pepper, sugar):
- Capsicumfits better
- Potatofits better
- Sweet potatofits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, bread, butter, pepper, sugar. 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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