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Deviled Tomatoes

Deviled tomatoes are tomato slices topped with a seasoned egg and butter sauce.

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 ↓

Deviled Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Pound the boiled yolks.

  2. Rub the yolks in the butter and seasonings.

  3. Beat the mixture lightly.

  4. Add the vinegar.

  5. Heat almost to a boil.

  6. Stir in the beaten eggs until the mixture begins to thicken.

  7. Set the mixture in hot water.

Cook and serve

  1. Slice the tomatoes into ½-inch thick slices.

  2. Broil the tomato slices over a clear fire on a wire broiler.

  3. Place the broiled tomatoes on a hot dish.

  4. Pour the hot sauce over them.

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. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,482 recipes

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

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Form the base that holds the hot sauce and carries its juices.
Hard-boiled egg yolks
Provide a smooth, rich body that the sauce is built on.
Raw eggs
Thicken the sauce as they set with gentle heat.
Melted butter
Adds richness and a silky texture to the sauce.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour of the rich sauce.
Made mustard
Adds sharpness and savoury depth to the sauce.

The step that matters

Stir in the beaten eggs until the mixture begins to thicken. Raw egg thickens only gently with heat. If the mixture gets too hot or is heated too long, the eggs can curdle or scramble, leaving a grainy sauce. Keep the heat low and stop as soon as it thickens.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, vinegar, sugar, mustard, pepper):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, vinegar, sugar, mustard, pepper. 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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