Why it works: Tomato and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,592 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Green Tomato Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the filling
Wash the tomato and remove the center.
Insert a piece of lemon into the tomato.
Stew the tomato with ¾ pound of sugar until well done.
Assemble and bake
Place the stewed tomato in puff pastry like other pies.
Bake until golden brown.
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.
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Tomato + lemontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,592 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Tomato + sugartop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,667 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Green tomato
- Provides the bulk of the filling and a firm, tart flavor once cooked.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the tomato and draws out moisture as it stews into a thick filling.
- Lemon
- Adds acidity and bright citrus aroma that balance the sweetness.
- Puff pastry
- Forms the flaky, layered crust that encloses the filling and browns in the oven.
The step that matters
Stew the tomato until well done. Tomatoes release water as they cook, and sugar draws out more. If the filling is left wet, it can soak the pastry and stop it from crisping, so the stewed tomato should be cooked down until thick before it goes into the pastry.
Swap the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, lemon):
- Arrowrootfits better
- Sweet potatofits better
- Kalefits better
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon. 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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