Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 27,232 recipes mention both. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Mammy Lu's Escalloped 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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a baking dish not over 2 inches deep, layer the tomatoes.
Sprinkle sugar, salt, and pepper over the tomatoes.
Top with the buttered bread dice.
Bake
Bake until the top is nicely browned.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together1,013 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + spreadtop 10% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together260 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together20,964 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
- Form the juicy base that bakes down into a saucy layer beneath the bread.
- Sugar
- Balances the acidity of the tomatoes and adds sweetness.
- Bread
- Soaks up tomato juices and forms a soft, browned topping.
- Butter
- Coats the bread, adding richness and helping it brown in the oven.
The step that matters
Bake until the top is nicely browned. The bread needs enough oven time to dry and brown on top. Pulling the dish too early leaves the topping pale and soggy, while the tomatoes below stay watery.
“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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