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Scalloped Tomatoes

A baked tomato dish layered with onions, butter, breadcrumbs, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Scalloped Tomatoes

Why it works: Bread and butter 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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Drain the liquid from the can of tomatoes, salt it, and set aside for soup.

  2. Strew the bottom of a baking dish with fine bread crumbs.

Assemble

  1. Layer sliced tomatoes on top, then sprinkle with minced onion, bits of butter, pepper, salt, and sugar.

  2. Repeat layering until all tomatoes are used.

  3. Cover the top thickly with bread crumbs.

Bake and finish

  1. Cover with a plate or tin lid and bake for 30 minutes.

  2. Brown quickly under the broiler 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. Bread + buttertop 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. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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 moisture that softens and bakes into the dish.
Fine bread crumbs
Absorb tomato juices and form a crisp, golden topping once browned.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the topping brown and taste savory.
Minced onion
Adds aromatic savory flavor that deepens during baking.
Sugar
Balances the acidity of the tomatoes and encourages browning.

The step that matters

Brown quickly under the broiler before serving. The broiler browns the crumb topping fast, and it can scorch in seconds. Watching closely keeps the top golden rather than burnt.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Sweet potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

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