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Tomato Creole

A tomato-based dish with green peppers, onions, butter, flour, cream, and toasted Shredded Wheat biscuit halves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Tomato Creole

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Cut the tomatoes into thirds.

  2. Place the tomato thirds in a buttered baking pan.

  3. Sprinkle the chopped green peppers, onion, butter pieces, salt, and paprika over the tomatoes.

  4. Place the tomato slices onto toasted halves of Shredded Wheat biscuit.

Make the sauce and finish

  1. In the pan, add 2 tablespoons of butter and 2 tablespoons of flour to the remaining liquid.

  2. Stir well until brown, then add 1 cup of cream.

  3. Let it boil, then pour over the tomatoes and toast.

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. Tomato + wheattop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together468 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Onion + biscuittop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together428 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

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 and liquid of the dish, with acidity that balances the richness.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and browns with the flour to build flavor in the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the liquid into a sauce as it cooks with the butter.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, thicker texture to the sauce.
Green peppers
Contribute a fresh, grassy aroma and flavor to the tomatoes.

The step that matters

Browning the butter and flour, then adding the cream. Stir the butter and flour together until evenly brown so the flour cooks into a roux. Constant stirring prevents scorching and lumps. Adding the cream to a smooth roux and letting it boil thickens the sauce evenly.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, onion, butter, flour, cream, wheat, biscuit):

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, onion, butter, flour, cream, wheat, biscuit. 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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