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Grilled Tomatoes

A simple dish of sliced tomatoes broiled with butter, parsley, lemon, pepper, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Grilled Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the tomatoes into thick slices without peeling them.

  2. Lightly rub an oyster broiler with butter.

  3. Lay the tomato slices on the broiler.

Broil and season

  1. Broil the tomatoes over a clear fire.

  2. In a bowl, mix the minced parsley and lemon juice into the 2 tablespoons of butter.

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

  4. Add the sauce on top of the tomatoes.

  5. Cover the tomatoes.

  6. Let them stand in the open oven or plate-warmer for a couple of minutes until the butter melts.

  7. 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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Their moisture and acidity soften and concentrate under heat, giving the slices a tender, juicy body.
Butter
Adds richness and carries the flavour of the sauce, melting over the hot tomatoes.
Lemon juice
Adds brightness and acidity that cut through the richness of the butter.

The step that matters

Broil the tomatoes over a clear fire. Tomato slices can scorch or turn mushy if the heat is uneven or too long. A hot, clear fire browns the surface quickly while the inside stays juicy and holds its shape.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, parsley, lemon, sauce, 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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