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Dessert

Deviled Tomatoes

Deviled tomatoes are tomato slices topped with a butter, vinegar, egg yolk, and spice mixture.

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 dressing

  1. In a bowl, mix the butter and vinegar with the yolk of the hard‑boiled egg until smooth.

  2. Add a pinch of sugar, salt, mustard, and cayenne pepper. Beat until smooth.

  3. Heat to a boil. Remove from heat.

  4. Pour the mixture over the well‑beaten egg, whipping to a smooth cream.

Prepare and serve

  1. Slice the tomatoes into ½‑inch thick slices and lay them on a sieve.

  2. Place the bowl with the dressing in hot water while broiling the tomatoes over a clear fire.

  3. Serve the tomatoes on a hot dish. Pour the dressing 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
Firm slices provide the base that holds up under broiling and the dressing.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy body to the dressing.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that sharpens the flavor of the dressing.
Egg yolk
Emulsifies the butter and vinegar into a smooth, thick dressing.
Well-beaten egg
Thickens the dressing into a cream when whipped with the hot mixture.

The step that matters

Pour the mixture over the well-beaten egg, whipping to a smooth cream. Pouring hot mixture into beaten egg while whisking quickly warms the egg gradually, so it thickens smoothly. Pouring too fast or without whisking can scramble the egg and leave lumps.

Swap the tomato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, vinegar, egg, 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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