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Broiled Tomatoes

Broiled tomatoes seasoned with salt, pepper, breadcrumbs, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Broiled Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wipe the tomatoes and cut them in half crosswise.

  2. Slice off a thin piece from the rounded part of each half.

  3. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  4. Dip the halves in breadcrumbs.

Broil

  1. Place in a well-buttered broiler.

  2. Broil for six to eight minutes.

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

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

  2. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Provide the juicy, soft body that bakes down under the crumb topping.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, browned crust on the cut surface as the tomato heats.
Butter
Conducts heat into the pan and helps the crumbs brown richly.

The step that matters

Dip the halves in breadcrumbs. Crumbs need to coat the cut surface evenly so they can brown and crisp under the broiler. Dry or patchy coverage leads to soggy or unevenly browned spots.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, butter. 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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