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Tomatoes, Grilled

Grilled tomatoes seasoned with oil, butter, mustard, salt, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,482 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tomatoes, Grilled

Ingredients

Directions

Grill whole tomatoes

  1. Coat the whole tomatoes with oil, butter, clarified fat, or bacon fat.

  2. Grill them over a clear fire on a greased gridiron for 5 to 10 minutes.

American style

  1. For the American style, slice the tomatoes thinly.

  2. Coat the slices with butter, mustard, a pinch of salt, and sugar.

  3. Grill the slices in the usual way or cook them in a Dutch oven before the fire.

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 + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,482 recipes

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

  2. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Mustard + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,424 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  5. Butter + mustardtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,003 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Small ripe tomatoes
Provide the main body and juice that softens and caramelises over the fire.
Oil, butter, clarified fat, or bacon fat
Coats the tomatoes to prevent sticking and promote even browning on the grill.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the cut surfaces brown and caramelise.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that contrasts with the sweet, mellowed tomato.

The step that matters

Grilling the whole tomatoes over a clear fire. A clear fire gives steady heat without heavy smoke or soot, so the skins blister and the flesh softens without scorching before the interior heats through.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, mustard, 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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