Name: Baked Tomatoes
Ingredients: 12 large tomatoes; ½ cup water; 1 cup brown sugar; 2 tablespoons butter

Why it works: Sugar and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 98,233 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Baked Tomatoes

Ingredients

12 large tomatoes
½ cup water
1 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter

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

Scald the tomatoes and peel them.
Place the tomatoes in a baking dish.

Bake

Add the brown sugar, butter, and water.
Bake for 1 hour at 350°F (175°C).

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.

Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Tomato + buttertop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,918 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Tomato + sugartop 33% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,667 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes: Soften during baking and release juice that mingles with the sugar and butter into a sauce.
Brown sugar: Adds sweetness and, as it melts, helps form a thick syrupy sauce.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor and helping the sauce taste rounded.