Name: Baked Tomatoes
Ingredients: 5 or 6 smooth tomatoes; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; ⅛ teaspoon black pepper; 1 tablespoon butter

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 ↓

Baked Tomatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

5 or 6 smooth tomatoes
¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt
⅛ teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon butter

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Wash the tomatoes and cut a piece from the stem end, about the size of a quarter.
Add ¼ teaspoon of coarse sea salt, ⅛ teaspoon of black pepper, and 1 tablespoon of butter to each tomato.

Bake

Place the tomatoes in a dish or pan and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for nearly one hour.

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.

Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Tomato + buttertop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,918 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes: Soften slowly in the oven, releasing juices that concentrate into a savory sauce.
Butter: Adds fat that carries flavor and enriches the tomato juices as they bake.