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Tomato Rarebit

A tomato cheese sauce served hot over toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Tomato Rarebit

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a chafing dish.

  2. Add the flour and stir until combined.

  3. Gradually pour in the cream, stirring until the mixture thickens.

  4. Mix in the tomatoes and baking soda.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the cheese, beaten eggs, and seasonings to taste.

  2. Serve immediately on graham toast once the cheese has melted.

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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Cheese + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,805 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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Enriches the base and adds richness to the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the butter and cream into a smooth sauce.
Cream
Adds body and moisture, making the sauce smooth and creamy.
Tomatoes
Provide acidity and flavour to the sauce.
Baking soda
Neutralises some tomato acidity, mellowing the sauce.
Cheese
Melts into the sauce to give it its main flavour and richness.
Eggs
Add richness and help bind the sauce as it sets.

The step that matters

Gradually pour in the cream, stirring until the mixture thickens. Adding cream slowly while stirring keeps the flour-butter base smooth and prevents lumps. Stirring also lets the starch gelatinise evenly, so the sauce thickens into a uniform texture.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, cream, cheese, egg, mustard):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, cream, cheese, egg, 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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