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Stewed Tomatoes

Stewed tomatoes simmered with butter, sugar, salt, and pepper, optionally thickened with crumbs and enriched with milk or cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓

Stewed Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. If using fresh tomatoes, scald and peel them.

Cook

  1. In a pot, combine tomatoes, butter, sugar, salt, and pepper.

  2. Cook over medium heat for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

  3. For a thicker consistency, add bread or cracker crumbs.

  4. If adding milk or cream, also stir in baking soda to prevent curdling.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

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

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

  5. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Provide the main body, moisture and acidity that form the stewed sauce.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the stewed tomatoes.
Sugar
Balances the acidity of the tomatoes with sweetness.
Bread or cracker crumbs
Absorb liquid and thicken the stew.
Baking soda
Neutralizes acid so milk or cream is less likely to curdle.

The step that matters

Adding milk or cream with baking soda. Tomatoes are acidic, and acid can cause milk or cream to curdle when heated. Baking soda neutralizes some of that acid, which helps keep the dairy smooth.

Swap the tomato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, pepper, bread, milk. 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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