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Broiled Tomatoes

A simple dish of tomatoes broiled and served on toast with butter, pepper, and coarse sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Broiled Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and wipe the tomatoes.

  2. Cut the tomatoes in half with a sharp knife.

  3. Lay the tomato halves skin side down on a buttered broiler.

Broil and serve

  1. Cook over a clear fire until done.

  2. Arrange squares of toast on a hot platter and place half a tomato on each slice.

  3. Sprinkle the tomatoes with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  4. Pour melted butter over all.

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 + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Tomato + buttertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,918 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Their juicy flesh softens and partly collapses under heat, becoming tender and concentrated in flavor.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helps the tomato surfaces brown, and carries flavor across the dish.
Toast
Serves as a sturdy base that soaks up the tomato juices and melted butter.

The step that matters

Cook over a clear fire until done. Tomatoes contain a lot of water, so too much heat or time makes them collapse and lose their shape. Watching for softening and light browning gives a tender result that still holds together on the toast.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper. 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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