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Dessert

Tomato Butter

A sweet preserve made from tomatoes, apples, sugar, lemon juice, and ginger, cooked to a marmalade consistency.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,154 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Tomato Butter

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Scald the tomatoes and remove the skins.

  2. In a large pot, combine the tomatoes with the peeled, cored, and quartered apples.

  3. Cook over medium heat for 1 hour, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking.

Make the marmalade

  1. Add the sugar, lemon juice, and ginger.

  2. Cook slowly, stirring continuously until the mixture thickens to a marmalade consistency.

Jar and store

  1. Transfer to jars or tumblers and let cool.

  2. Once cool, cover with two layers of tissue paper, moisten the top with water or egg white, and allow to dry.

  3. Store in a cool, dark place.

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. Lemon + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Apple + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,424 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + gingertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,887 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Tomato + appletop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together548 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Provide the bulk of the marmalade and its body as they break down during cooking.
Apples
Add natural pectin that helps the mixture thicken into a set marmalade.
Sugar
Sweetens the marmalade and helps it thicken and preserve.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens flavor and supports pectin setting.

The step that matters

Cook slowly, stirring continuously until the mixture thickens. Once sugar is added, the mixture can scorch on the bottom of the pot if not stirred constantly. Thickening happens as water evaporates and pectin and sugar concentrate, so the mixture must be cooked until it reaches a marmalade consistency.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, sugar, lemon, ginger):

  1. Sweet potatofits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, lemon, ginger. 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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