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Escaloped Tomatoes

A baked tomato dish layered with cracker crumbs, butter, sugar, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Escaloped Tomatoes

Why it works: Butter and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 98,233 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Escaloped Tomatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Assemble and bake

  1. In an earthen baking dish, layer cracker crumbs and small bits of butter.

  2. Add a layer of tomatoes with a sprinkle of sugar.

  3. Repeat layers of cracker crumbs and tomatoes until the dish is full, finishing with cracker crumbs on top.

  4. Pour a little water over the layers to moisten.

  5. Bake for 30 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Butter + tomatotop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,918 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + sugartop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,667 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Cracker crumbs
Form the bulk of the layers and soak up tomato juice, giving the dish a soft, absorbent texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the crumbs brown lightly in the oven.
Tomatoes
Provide the main moisture and acidity, which soften the crumbs as the dish bakes.
Sugar
Sweetens the tomatoes and balances their acidity.

The step that matters

Pour a little water over the layers to moisten.. Crumbs need enough liquid to soften as they bake. Too little water leaves dry, gritty layers, while the tomato juice alone may not reach every layer.

Swap the tomato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, 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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