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Scrambled Tomatoes and Eggs

A fried tomato and egg mixture served over toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Scrambled Tomatoes and Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Fry the minced onion in butter until light brown.

  2. Heat the strained tomatoes with sugar, salt, and pepper.

  3. Add the beaten eggs, butter, and onion to the tomato mixture.

  4. Cook until thick and creamy, stirring constantly.

  5. Pour the mixture over slices of toast and sprinkle with grated cheese if desired.

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. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  3. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + cheesetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,896 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into a creamy, thickened mass as they cook in the tomato mixture.
Strained tomatoes
Form the liquid base that the eggs cook into, adding moisture and acidity.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and carries the flavour of the cooked onion.
Minced onion
Adds savoury aroma and depth after frying in butter until light brown.
Sugar
Balances the acidity of the strained tomatoes with a touch of sweetness.

The step that matters

Cook until thick and creamy, stirring constantly. Egg proteins set with heat, and if they cook too fast or unstirred they can curdle or stick and turn grainy. Constant stirring over moderate heat keeps the mixture smooth and tender.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, tomato, sugar, pepper, egg, cheese. 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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