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Stewed Canned Tomatoes

A dish of stewed canned tomatoes flavored with cheese, breadcrumbs, eggs, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter 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 ↓

Stewed Canned Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Melt the butter in a hot pan until it begins to brown.

  2. Pour in the tomatoes and cook quickly without burning.

  3. When nearly done, add the bread crumbs and cheese.

  4. Season with salt and pepper, then mix the flour with a little cold water to make a smooth paste and add it.

  5. Stir in the beaten eggs just before removing from heat.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

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

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

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 liquid of the stewed dish.
Eggs
Set into the stew when stirred in, thickening and enriching the mixture.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and add body, giving the stew a thicker texture.
Flour
Thickens the liquid into a smooth, slightly thickened sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and browned, nutty flavour from the initial browning.

The step that matters

Stir in the beaten eggs just before removing from heat. Eggs set when heated, so adding them too early or overcooking can cause curdling or a grainy texture. Adding them near the end and removing from heat keeps the stew smooth.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Tomatothe original

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