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Baked Tomatoes

A baked tomato dish finished with a whipped cream and butter topping.

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 ↓

Baked Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Peel and slice the tomatoes into ¼-inch thick slices.

Layer and bake

  1. Layer the slices in a pudding dish, seasoning each layer with salt, pepper, bits of butter, and a sprinkle of sugar.

  2. Cover the dish with a lid and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

  3. Remove the lid and brown for an additional 10 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Just before serving, pour the whipped cream mixed with melted butter over the top.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Pepper + buttertop 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 juice that softens and concentrates as the dish bakes.
Whipped cream
Adds richness and a soft, creamy topping that contrasts with the baked tomatoes.
White sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the tomatoes' acidity and supports browning on top.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the top brown during the uncovered bake.

The step that matters

Covered baking before browning. Keeping the lid on for the first 30 minutes traps steam so the tomatoes soften evenly. Removing it too early can dry the surface, while leaving it on too long prevents the top from browning.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, butter, sugar, cream. 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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