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Devilled Tomatoes

Devilled tomatoes are tomatoes topped with a seasoned egg yolk and butter mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Devilled Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. Rub together the melted butter, pounded yolks, cayenne, salt, mustard, and sugar.

  2. Beat the mixture well, add vinegar, and heat until boiling.

  3. Pour this mixture over the beaten eggs and whip until smooth.

  4. Set the bowl in hot water while you broil the tomatoes over clear coals.

Serve

  1. Transfer the tomatoes to a hot chafing dish and pour the hot dressing over them.

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. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,482 recipes

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

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Hard-boiled yolks, pounded, give the dressing body and a rich, smooth texture.
Raw eggs
Beaten raw eggs thicken the dressing as they gently cook in the hot mixture.
Butter
Melted butter adds fat, richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the dressing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the dressing and balances the richness of the eggs and butter.
Tomatoes
Firm, sliced tomatoes make up the base, providing moisture and a fresh, tart flavour.

The step that matters

Pour the hot dressing over the beaten eggs and whip until smooth. Pouring the hot mixture into the raw eggs while whipping gently warms them so they thicken into a smooth sauce. Adding it too quickly or without whisking can leave the eggs scrambled in lumps.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, vinegar, sugar, mustard, pepper. 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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