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Scalloped Tomatoes

A baked tomato dish layered with bread crumbs, butter, and sweet cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Scalloped Tomatoes

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Scalloped Tomatoes

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. Season the tomatoes with salt, pepper, sugar, and onion juice.

  2. Butter a deep baking dish and sprinkle a layer of bread crumbs on the bottom.

Assemble and bake

  1. Add a layer of seasoned tomatoes, then dot with bits of butter.

  2. Repeat layers of bread crumbs and tomatoes until the dish is full, finishing with bread crumbs on top.

  3. Moisten the top with sweet cream.

  4. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until browned 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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 liquid that softens the bread crumbs as it bakes.
Bread crumbs
Absorb tomato juices and form a soft, layered structure that holds the dish together.
Sugar
Balances the acidity of the tomatoes with sweetness.
Sweet cream
Adds richness and moisture to the top, helping it brown evenly.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the top crumbs brown.

The step that matters

Bake until browned. Baking long enough lets the tomato juices thicken and reduce against the bread crumbs, while the top browns through dry heat. Pulling it too early leaves a watery, pale dish.

Swap the tomato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, sugar, onion, butter, bread, cream. 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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