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Baked Tomatoes

Baked tomatoes are tomatoes coated with egg, cracker crumbs, butter, and seasonings, then baked until soft.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Baked Tomatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Wipe the tomatoes and remove a thin slice from the stem end.

Coat and bake

  1. Dip the top of each tomato in the beaten egg, then in the cracker crumbs mixed with sugar, salt, and pepper.

  2. Dot the tomatoes with bits of butter.

  3. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) 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.

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. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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 that softens and becomes tender in the oven.
Beaten egg
Acts as a binder so the cracker crumb coating sticks to the tomato.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, browned topping over the tomatoes as they bake.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the topping brown as it melts over the tomatoes.

The step that matters

Coating the tomatoes. The egg must cover the top so the crumbs adhere; otherwise the coating can slide off during baking and the topping will not form a crisp, even layer.

Swap the tomato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, pepper, 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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