Skip to main content
Main

Tomatoes with Shredded Wheat Biscuits

A baked dish of sliced tomatoes served over soaked shredded wheat biscuits with butter, milk, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Wheat and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Tomatoes with Shredded Wheat Biscuits

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Split the shredded wheat biscuits in half and place them in a baking pan.

  3. Pour enough milk over the biscuits to soak them.

  4. Drizzle a little melted butter over each biscuit.

Assemble and bake

  1. Arrange the sliced tomatoes on top of the biscuits.

  2. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and add small bits of butter.

  3. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes.

Serve

  1. Carefully transfer to a hot dish and serve.

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. Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  2. Milk + buttertop 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 + wheattop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together468 recipes

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

  5. Wheat + biscuittop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together116 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Shredded wheat biscuits
Form the base, absorbing milk to become soft and tender while holding the toppings.
Tomatoes
Add moisture and acidity that brighten the dish and soften as they bake.
Milk
Soaks into the biscuits, adding moisture and softening their texture as they bake.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the top brown and carrying flavour across the dish.

The step that matters

Soaking the biscuits with milk. Enough milk must soak the biscuits so they soften evenly. Too little leaves dry, chalky patches, while too much makes the base soggy and heavy as it bakes.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Sweet potatofits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against wheat, biscuit, milk, butter, 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesTomato BisqueTomato Bisque61 recipesPotato BiscuitPotato Biscuit32 recipes