Name: Tomato Rarebit
Ingredients: ½ pint soft American strained tomatoes; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 cup soft white bread crumbs; ½ teaspoon Kitchen Bouquet; 1 clove garlic

Why it works: Tomato and garlic are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,076 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Tomato Rarebit

Ingredients

Directions

Grate the cheese and mix it with the tomatoes, salt, bread crumbs, and Kitchen Bouquet.
Rub the chafing dish with the clove of garlic.
Turn the mixture into the pan and stir rapidly until hot and smooth.
Serve at once on toast, accompanied with cucumber salad and French dressing.

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.

Tomato + garlictop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,076 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,013 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Clove + garlictop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,368 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Tomato + clovetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,474 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Bread + garlictop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together767 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).