Name: Baked Tomatoes
Ingredients: firm ripe tomatoes; coarse sea salt; butter; chives (or finely chopped onion); buttered toast

Why it works: Tomato and chive work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 538 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Baked Tomatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Cut the tomatoes in half and remove the green stem.
Place the tomatoes cut side up in an agate baking pan.
Season each tomato half with a little coarse sea salt, a small piece of butter, and chives or onion.
Bake for about 15 minutes, being careful not to break their shape.
Serve each tomato half on round pieces of buttered toast.

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 + chivetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together538 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter + chivetop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,097 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Tomato + buttertop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,918 recipes

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