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Scalloped Tomatoes

A baked tomato dish topped with browned breadcrumbs and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Scalloped Tomatoes

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 ↓

Scalloped Tomatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the crumbs

  1. Reserve 3 tablespoons of bread crumbs.

  2. Spread the remaining bread crumbs on a pan.

  3. Brown the bread crumbs in a 400°F (200°C) oven, being careful not to burn them.

Assemble and bake

  1. Mix the tomatoes, browned crumbs, salt, pepper, and half the butter or drippings together.

  2. Put the mixture in a shallow baking dish.

  3. Spread the reserved unbrowned bread crumbs on top.

  4. Dot the mixture with the remaining butter or drippings, cutting into bits.

  5. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 30 minutes until the top is brown and crisp.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Provide the main body and moisture that the crumbs soak up and bind into the dish.
Bread crumbs
Absorb tomato liquid to thicken the dish, and browned crumbs add toasty flavor and texture.
Butter or drippings
Add fat for richness and help the topping brown and crisp in the oven.

The step that matters

Browning the bread crumbs. Crumbs toast quickly at 400°F and can scorch before they color evenly. Burnt crumbs taste bitter and spoil the dish, so they need watching and gentle stirring.

Swap the tomato

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

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

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