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Tomatoes, Stewed

A tomato stew cooked with onions, butter, sugar, salt, pepper, and bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓

Tomatoes, Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the onions

  1. Combine the onions and ½ cup of water in a large deep skillet.

  2. Cook for 20 minutes.

Add the tomatoes and seasonings

  1. Scald the tomatoes, peel, and cut them up.

  2. Add the tomatoes to the skillet with the onions.

  3. Stir in the butter, sugar, salt, and pepper.

  4. Cook for 30 minutes.

Add the bread and finish

  1. Add the bread.

  2. Cook for an additional 30 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. Butter + breadtop 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
Supply the main body and liquid that forms the stewed sauce as they soften.
Onions
Add savory sweetness and body as they soften into the stew.
Bread
Thickens the stewed liquid and gives the dish a soft, body-rich texture.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the stewed sauce.
Sugar
Balances the acidity of the tomatoes and adds mild sweetness.

The step that matters

Add the bread. Bread thickens the liquid as it absorbs juices and softens. Adding it too early over long cooking can break it down into a paste, so it is added late in the simmer.

Swap the onion

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

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

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