Name: Tomato Pie
Ingredients: green tomatoes; 2 tablespoons vinegar; 1 small piece butter; 3 tablespoons sugar; a little nutmeg; 2 pie crusts

Why it works: Tomato and nutmeg work together. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 879 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Tomato Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Peel and slice the green tomatoes.
In a bowl, combine the tomatoes with vinegar, butter, sugar, and nutmeg.

Assemble and bake

Place the mixture in a pie crust and cover with the second crust.
Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until done.

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.

Tomato + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together879 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Tomato + vinegartop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,063 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together24,377 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Green tomatoes: Provide the main filling bulk and tart, juicy body for the pie.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour of the green tomatoes.
Sugar: Balances the tartness of the green tomatoes and aids gentle browning.
Butter: Adds richness and fat that carries flavour through the filling.
Pie crusts: Enclose the filling, holding its juices while the pie bakes.