Name: To Bake Tomatoes
Ingredients: 5 or 6 tomatoes; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; ⅛ teaspoon black pepper; 1 tablespoon butter

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 ↓

To Bake Tomatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

5 or 6 tomatoes
¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt
⅛ teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon butter

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

Wash the tomatoes and cut a small piece from the stem end.
Sprinkle a little salt, pepper, and a piece of butter into each tomato.

Bake and serve

Place the tomatoes in a dish and bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for nearly an hour.
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.

Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Tomato + buttertop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,918 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes: Soften as they bake, releasing juices that turn into a warm, concentrated sauce in the dish.
Butter: Adds fat that carries flavor and enriches the tomato's juices as they cook.