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Dredged Tomatoes

Breaded fried tomato slices coated in egg and breadcrumbs, then fried until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Dredged Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Choose smooth, solid tomatoes.

  2. Cut the tomatoes into slices ⅛ inch thick.

  3. Dust the slices with salt and pepper.

  4. Beat the egg in a saucer and add boiling water to the beaten egg.

  5. Dip each slice in the egg mixture.

  6. Coat each slice with bread crumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat lard or drippings in a frying pan until very hot.

  2. Place the tomato slices in the pan.

  3. Fry the slices until brown on both sides.

  4. Lift the tomatoes carefully.

  5. Place the tomatoes on a heated dish.

  6. Serve immediately.

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

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

  3. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + eggtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

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

Pepper and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 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

Tomatoes
Firm, smooth tomatoes form the main body of the dish, holding their shape when sliced and fried.
Egg
Beaten egg binds the bread crumbs to the tomato slices and helps them form a coating.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned crust on the outside of the tomato slices when fried.
Lard or drippings
Fat for frying that conducts heat and browns the coating on both sides.

The step that matters

Frying in very hot fat. The fat must be very hot before the slices go in. Hot fat sets the crumb coating quickly so it crisps rather than soaking up oil and falling apart.

Swap the tomato

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

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

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