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Fried Tomatoes for Breakfast

Fried tomatoes are tomato slices coated in breadcrumbs and fried in lard and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Fried Tomatoes for Breakfast

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Slice the tomatoes into ½ inch thick slices.

  2. Dip the slices in powdered bread crumbs.

  3. Fry the breaded slices in a mixture of lard and butter until light brown.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

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

  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

Large smooth tomatoes
Provide the juicy, soft interior that contrasts with the crisp coating.
Powdered bread crumbs
Form a coating that browns and crisps in the hot fat.
Lard
Conducts heat for frying and adds richness and browning.
Butter
Adds flavour and helps the coating brown in the frying fat.

The step that matters

Frying the breaded slices. The fat must be hot enough to brown the crumb quickly. If it is too cool, the coating absorbs fat and turns greasy, while the tomato softens before the crust sets. Cook until light brown, turning as needed, for an even crust.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Leekfits about as well
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Tomatothe original
  4. Shallotfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, 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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