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Broiled Tomatoes with Minced Ham

Broiled tomatoes topped with minced ham, butter, salt, and pepper.

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

Broiled Tomatoes with Minced Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the tomatoes in half across without peeling.

  2. Place them in a shallow pan, cut side up.

  3. Top each half with a heaping teaspoon of minced ham.

  4. Add a dot of butter or margarine, and season with salt and pepper.

Broil and serve

  1. Broil for 8 to 10 minutes.

  2. 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.

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

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

  2. Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + buttertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,918 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + hamtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together348 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Provide the juicy base that softens and warms under the broiler.
Minced ham
Adds savory, salty flavor and a little browning on the surface.
Butter or margarine
Adds fat that carries flavor and helps the tomato surface brown.

The step that matters

Broil for 8 to 10 minutes. Tomatoes hold a lot of water, so too little heat leaves them watery, while too long a broil can dry them out and scorch the ham. Watch the surface as it browns and softens.

Swap the tomato

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

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

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