Skip to main content
Main

Tomatoes on Toast

Tomatoes on toast topped with butter, cream sauce, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 on Toast

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Wash and cut the tomatoes in half crosswise.

  2. Place them in a buttered baking pan and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and parsley.

  3. Top each tomato half with a small piece of butter.

Bake and assemble

  1. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for about 30 minutes.

  2. Prepare the toast while the tomatoes bake.

  3. Carefully lift one tomato half onto each slice of toast.

  4. In the baking pan, combine the remaining butter, milk, cream, onion juice, salt, and pepper to make the sauce.

  5. Pour the sauce over the tomatoes and toast before serving.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 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

Tomatoes
Provide the main body and juicy, slightly acidic flavour of the dish.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the tomatoes take on browning and a savoury flavour.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving it a soft, creamy body.
Cream
Thickens the sauce and adds richness and a smoother mouthfeel.
Toast
Gives a crisp base that holds the tomato and absorbs the sauce.

The step that matters

Combining the sauce with cream and milk. Dairy proteins can curdle or separate if the sauce boils hard, so it should be warmed gently and kept below a rapid boil to stay smooth.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, parsley, milk, cream, onion):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, parsley, milk, cream, onion. 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.

More tomato toast recipes

Cheese 3 See all 55 →

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesTomato BisqueTomato Bisque61 recipesCream Tomato SoupCream Tomato Soup28 recipes