Skip to main content
Main

Fried Tomatoes I

Fried tomatoes are sliced, seasoned, breaded, fried, and served with a sweet cream sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Fried Tomatoes I

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Slice the tomatoes into 1-inch thick slices, leaving the skins on.

  2. Sprinkle salt and sugar on both sides of the tomato slices.

  3. Dredge the slices in cracker crumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat equal parts butter and lard in a skillet.

  2. Fry the tomato slices on both sides until brown.

  3. Carefully remove the fried tomatoes to a hot platter.

  4. Add sweet cream to the fat in the skillet and boil for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.

  5. Pour the cream sauce over the tomatoes on the platter.

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

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

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Tomato + buttertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Tomato + creamtop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,034 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Form the main body of the dish, softening slightly while their outsides brown in the fat.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, browned coating that protects the tomato and helps it brown.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor and helps the coating brown in the frying fat.
Lard
Provides a high-temperature frying fat that browns the coating evenly.
Sweet cream
Boiled in the pan fat to make a thickened, rich sauce that coats the tomatoes.

The step that matters

Fry the tomato slices on both sides until brown. The coating needs enough heat to brown without burning, and the fat must be hot before the slices go in. Too cool a pan lets the crumbs soak up grease and turn soggy, while too hot a pan darkens the crumbs before the tomato warms through.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Sweet potatofits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, cream. 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.

More fried tomatoes recipes

and Onions 3 See all 138 →

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesTomato BisqueTomato Bisque61 recipesCream Tomato SoupCream Tomato Soup28 recipes