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Deviled Tomatoes

Deviled tomatoes are tomato slices topped with a boiled egg yolk dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Deviled Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dressing

  1. In a bowl, mix the butter and vinegar with the yolk of the hard-boiled egg until smooth.

  2. Add a pinch of sugar, salt, mustard, and cayenne pepper.

  3. Beat the mixture until smooth.

  4. Heat the mixture to a boil.

  5. Remove the mixture from heat.

  6. Pour the dressing over the well-beaten egg white.

  7. Whip the dressing to a smooth cream.

  8. Place the dressing vessel in hot water.

Cook and serve

  1. Slice the tomatoes into ½ inch thick slices and lay them on a sieve.

  2. Broil the tomatoes over a clear fire.

  3. Serve the tomatoes on a hot dish and pour the dressing over them.

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. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,482 recipes

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

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Firm slices hold their shape under heat and provide the base the warm dressing is poured over.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy body to the dressing.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that sharpens the dressing and balances the richness of the yolk and butter.
Hard-boiled egg yolk
Emulsifies with the butter and vinegar, thickening the dressing into a smooth cream.

The step that matters

Heat the dressing gently. Egg yolk thickens when heated but curdles if it gets too hot or heats too fast. Gentle heat and constant whipping keep the dressing smooth and creamy.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, vinegar, egg, sugar, mustard, 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.

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