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Preserve

Canned Tomatoes

A method for preserving tomatoes in cans with salt, pepper, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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 ↓

Canned Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Scald the tomatoes.

  2. Cook in a granite kettle for 10 minutes, simmering, not boiling.

  3. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

  4. Fill the cans very full.

  5. Just before sealing, add a lump of fresh butter the size of a walnut.

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. Pepper + walnuttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,039 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Tomato + walnuttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together498 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Butter + walnuttop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  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
Form the body of the preserve and supply most of its flavor and acidity.
Fresh butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, rounder mouthfeel to the tomatoes.

The step that matters

Fill the cans very full. Leaving little empty space at the top of each can limits the air trapped above the tomatoes, which helps the contents keep their color and flavor in storage.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Black-eyed peafits better
  3. Chickpeafits better
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, butter. 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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