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Escaloped Tomatoes

Layered tomatoes with cracker crumbs, butter, sugar, and water, baked until tender.

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

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).

Assemble the dish

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

  2. Add a layer of tomatoes and sprinkle a little sugar over them.

  3. Repeat with another layer of cracker crumbs seasoned with butter and another layer of tomatoes.

  4. Finish with a layer of cracker crumbs on top.

  5. Pour a little water over the dish to moisten.

Bake

  1. 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 absorbent layers that soak up tomato juice and hold the dish together as it bakes.
Tomatoes
Supply moisture and acidity that soften the crumbs and create the saucy, juicy body of the dish.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that coats the crumbs and helps them brown lightly in the oven.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the tomatoes.

The step that matters

Pour a little water over the dish to moisten.. Crumbs need enough moisture to soften as they bake; too little liquid leaves them dry and gritty, while the tomatoes alone may not be enough to hydrate 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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