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Scalloped Tomatoes

A baked tomato dish topped with buttered cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Scalloped Tomatoes

Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Scalloped Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Remove the contents of a can of tomatoes and let it stand for 1 hour to aerate.

  2. Season the tomatoes with baking soda, salt, pepper, sugar, and nutmeg to taste.

Assemble and bake

  1. Butter a deep dish and sprinkle with a little fine cracker crumbs.

  2. Pour in the seasoned tomatoes and cover with 1 cup of cracker crumbs moistened in ½ cup of melted butter.

  3. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for about 30 minutes, or until the crumbs are brown.

  4. Alternatively, use raw tomatoes by layering sliced tomatoes, seasoning, and buttered cracker crumbs until all ingredients are used, finishing with cracker crumbs on top.

  5. Bake until soft.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together879 recipes

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

  4. Nutmeg + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 moisture of the dish as they soften and release juices in the oven.
Cracker crumbs
Absorb tomato juice and form a crisp, browned topping.
Butter
Moistens the crumbs and adds richness while helping the topping brown.
Baking soda
Neutralizes some of the tomatoes' acidity, mellowing their sharp flavor.

The step that matters

Bake until the crumbs are brown and the dish is soft. Tomatoes release a lot of liquid as they cook. Baking long enough lets that liquid evaporate and sets the crumbs, while too little time leaves the dish watery and the topping pale.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Sweet potatofits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, sugar, nutmeg, butter. 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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