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Escaloped Tomatoes

Escaloped tomatoes are baked tomato slices layered with breadcrumbs, butter, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Escaloped Tomatoes

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Escaloped Tomatoes

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. Peel and slice the tomatoes into ¼ inch thick slices.

  2. In a bowl, mix breadcrumbs with pepper and salt.

Layer and bake

  1. Layer the tomato slices in a baking dish, sprinkling salt between layers.

  2. Sprinkle a layer of the breadcrumb mixture over the tomatoes, then add bits of butter.

  3. Repeat the layers, finishing with breadcrumbs and butter on top.

  4. Pour milk over the layers.

  5. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour and 15 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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  3. Tomato + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,226 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. 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
Provide the main body and juice that softens and bakes into the dish.
Fresh breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping and soak up some of the juices as they bake.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the breadcrumb topping brown in the oven.
Milk
Adds liquid and creaminess that thickens gently and mellows the tomato acidity.

The step that matters

Pour milk over the layers.. Milk can curdle or separate when it meets acidic tomatoes and heat, so pour it evenly over the layers rather than mixing it in, which keeps the sauce smoother.

Swap the tomato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, butter, milk. 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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