Name: Tomato Pie
Ingredients: 6 medium-sized half ripe tomatoes, sliced thin; 1 lemon, sliced very thin; 1 cup sugar; 2 pie crusts

Why it works: Tomato and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,592 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Tomato Pie

Ingredients

6 medium-sized half ripe tomatoes, sliced thin
1 lemon, sliced very thin
1 cup sugar
2 pie crusts

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Assemble and bake

Layer the sliced tomatoes and lemon in a pie dish.
Sprinkle the sugar evenly over the top.
Cover with the second pie crust.
Bake for about 30-40 minutes or until the crust is golden.

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 + lemontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,592 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Tomato + sugartop 33% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,667 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes: Provide the main filling and moisture that softens and juices during baking.
Lemon: Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness of the tomatoes and sugar.
Sugar: Sweetens the filling and helps draw out juice from the tomatoes.
Pie crusts: Enclose the filling and brown in the oven to form the outer shell.