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Cheese and Tomato Rarebit

A baked cheese and tomato topping served over toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cheese and Tomato Rarebit

Ingredients

Directions

Make the rarebit

  1. In a bowl, combine strained tomatoes, salt, baking soda, paprika, and egg yolks.

  2. In a pan, melt the butter over low heat.

  3. Add the soft cheese and stir until melted.

  4. Gradually stir in the tomato mixture and continue stirring until thickened.

Serve

  1. Serve immediately over toast.

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. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Tomato + cheesetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,896 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Tomato + buttertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Egg + cheesetop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,253 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce and add richness as they set gently with the heat.
Soft cheese
Melts into the sauce to give it body and a creamy, stretchy texture.
Strained tomatoes
Provide moisture and acidity that balance the richness of the cheese.
Butter
Adds fat for smoothness and helps the cheese melt evenly.
Baking soda
Reduces the acidity of the tomatoes, which keeps the cheese from turning grainy.

The step that matters

Gradually stir in the tomato mixture. Adding the tomato and egg mixture slowly, while stirring, keeps the egg yolks from scrambling in the hot pan and lets the sauce thicken smoothly.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, cheese. 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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