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Potato and Tomato Pie

A baked pie of boiled potatoes, tomatoes, onions, eggs, and a buttered crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Potato and Tomato Pie

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 filling

  1. Boil the potatoes in their skins until nearly soft, then drain, peel, and cut into pieces.

  2. Scald and skin the tomatoes, then cut into pieces.

  3. In a pie dish, mix the potatoes and tomatoes.

  4. Chop the onion roughly and boil in about 1 pint of water, adding the butter and vermicelli or sago. Cook until soft.

  5. Add pepper and salt, then mix with the potatoes and tomatoes.

  6. Sprinkle in the thyme and mix all ingredients well.

  7. Quarter the hard-boiled eggs and place the pieces on top of the vegetables.

Make the crust and bake

  1. Make the crust by mixing the flour, butter, and enough cold water to form a dough.

  2. Brush the crust with egg white before baking for a better appearance.

  3. Cover the dish with the crust and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Tomato + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Potato + thymetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,586 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the bulk of the filling and soften into a tender, starchy body.
Tomatoes
Add moisture and acidity that give the filling its juicy, bright flavour.
Vermicelli or sago
Thickens the onion liquid so the filling holds together rather than running.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add richness and a firm, sliced texture to the top layer.
Butter
Adds fat for richness in both the onion mixture and the crust.
Fine wheat flour
Forms the structure of the crust dough that holds it together when baked.

The step that matters

Make the crust by mixing the flour, butter, and cold water. Cold water and only enough to form a dough keep the crust tender and flaky, since too much water or overworking develops gluten and makes it tough.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, tomato, egg, thyme, butter, pepper, wheat):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, tomato, egg, thyme, butter, pepper, wheat. 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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