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Tomatoes and Egg Toast

A toast topped with sautéed tomatoes, eggs, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Tomatoes and Egg Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Make the tomato base

  1. Peel and slice the tomatoes.

  2. In a saucepan, melt the butter and fry the tomatoes for a few minutes.

  3. Let the mixture cool.

  4. Rub the mixture through a sieve.

  5. Return the pulp to the saucepan.

Cook the egg topping

  1. Break in the eggs.

  2. Add the seasonings, sugar, and vinegar.

  3. Stir over gentle heat until it begins to set.

Serve

  1. Spoon the tomato mixture onto the center of each piece of buttered toast.

  2. Arrange the toast on a dish, garnish with parsley, and 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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  3. Tomato + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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 flavor of the topping once cooked and strained.
Eggs
Set when gently heated, thickening the tomato mixture into a spoonable topping.
Butter
Adds richness and helps fry the tomatoes, carrying flavor.
Vinegar
Adds a sharp acidity that brightens the sweet tomato and rich egg.

The step that matters

Stir over gentle heat until it begins to set. Eggs set at low temperatures; high heat can scramble them into lumps and curdle the smooth tomato mixture.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, pepper, butter, vinegar, sugar, parsley. 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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