Skip to main content
Main

Tomato Pudding

A baked layered dish of tomatoes, potatoes, egg, bread crumbs, and butter.

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

Why it works: Tomato and potato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,798 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tomato Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Butter a pie dish generously.

Layer and season

  1. Layer sliced tomatoes at the bottom of the dish.

  2. Add a layer of mashed potatoes on top.

  3. Repeat the layers until the dish is full.

  4. Season with pepper and salt.

Bake and finish

  1. Beat the egg and pour it over the layers.

  2. Sprinkle bread crumbs on top.

  3. Bake until golden brown.

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 + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

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

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 of the pudding as they soften during baking.
Potatoes
Add starch and body, helping the layers hold together as a soft, spoonable pudding.
Egg
Binds the layers as it sets in the oven, giving the pudding a custard-like structure.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned topping during baking.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the crumbs and dish surface brown.

The step that matters

Bake until golden brown. The egg needs to set fully while the top browns; underbaking leaves the pudding loose and wet in the centre, while overbaking can make it dry and tough.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, pepper, egg, bread, 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesPotato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipes