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Tomato Pie

A baked dish of tomatoes and meat topped with biscuit crust.

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 ↓

Tomato Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Assemble

  1. In a baking dish, layer fresh or canned tomatoes.

  2. Add a layer of chopped fine meat.

  3. Sprinkle butter, pepper, and coarse sea salt on each layer.

  4. Cover with a rich biscuit crust.

Bake

  1. Bake until the crust is golden brown.

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. Pepper + biscuittop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together841 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Meat + biscuittop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together159 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Tomato + biscuittop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together105 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Provide the main filling, releasing juice that moistens the layers as they bake.
Meat
Adds savoury richness and substance to the filling.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to each layer and helps the crust brown.
Biscuit crust
Forms a tender, flaky topping that browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Bake until the crust is golden brown. Browning comes from the Maillard reaction and caramelisation, which need dry oven heat. Pulling the pie too early leaves the crust pale and doughy, while the filling may still be watery and underset.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, butter, pepper, biscuit. 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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