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Broiled Tomatoes

Broiled tomatoes are sliced, broiled, then dressed with butter, vinegar, salt, pepper, and mustard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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. Slice ripe tomatoes without peeling them.

Broil and serve

  1. Cook the tomatoes on an oyster-broiler until hissing hot and slightly browned.

  2. Place the cooked tomatoes on a hot dish.

  3. Dress with a mixture of heated butter, vinegar, coarse sea salt, black pepper, and mustard.

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. Pepper + mustardtop 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

Ripe tomatoes
Provide the main body and juice that the broiling heat softens and lightly browns.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavor across the hot tomatoes as a warm dressing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and sweet, browned tomato flavor.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavor that balances the richness of the butter.

The step that matters

Broil until hissing hot and only slightly browned. Tomatoes are mostly water, so high heat drives off moisture and concentrates flavor while they soften. Overcooking collapses them into mush and turns the surface bitter, so they should be removed once hot and just browned.

Swap the tomato

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

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

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