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Tomatoes and Mushrooms

A tomato and mushroom topping served hot over toasted bread moistened with warm milk.

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 and Mushrooms

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cook the tomatoes in a saucepan for 15-20 minutes until most water evaporates.

  2. Season with salt and pepper.

  3. Add butter, bread crumbs, and chopped mushrooms.

  4. Cook until mushrooms are tender.

  5. Pour the mixture over toasted bread slices moistened with warm milk and serve hot.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Tomato + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,719 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 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
Release water as they cook down, concentrating their flavour into a thick, savoury base.
Mushrooms
Add earthy savour and a tender, meaty texture to the mixture.
Bread crumbs
Thicken the tomato and mushroom mixture so it holds together on the toast.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and giving a smoother mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Cook the tomatoes until most water evaporates. Tomatoes are mostly water. If they are not reduced enough, the mixture stays thin and soaks the toast, leaving it soggy rather than spreadable.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Tomatothe original
  4. Asparagusfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, butter, bread, mushroom, milk. 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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