Skip to main content
Main

Scrambled Eggs with Tomatoes

Scrambled eggs cooked with tomatoes, onions, butter, sugar, salt, and pepper, served with toasted bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Scrambled Eggs with Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the tomato base

  1. Simmer the tomatoes with sugar for five minutes.

  2. Fry the butter with the onion for three minutes.

  3. Remove the onion.

  4. Add the strained tomatoes, salt, and pepper to the pan.

Cook the eggs and serve

  1. Stir in the beaten egg.

  2. Cook until creamy, scraping the bottom of the pan.

  3. Serve with toasted whole wheat or brown bread.

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. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into soft curds that give the dish its creamy, scrambled texture.
Tomatoes
Provide moisture and acidity that give the scramble its sauce-like body and tang.
Butter
Adds fat and richness and helps the eggs cook gently without sticking.
Sugar
Balances the acidity of the tomatoes with a touch of sweetness.

The step that matters

Cook until creamy, scraping the bottom of the pan. Egg proteins set quickly over direct heat. Constant scraping keeps curds moving and prevents overcooked, dry or stuck bits, so the eggs stay soft and creamy.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, sugar, butter, pepper, egg. 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesTomato BisqueTomato Bisque61 recipesCream Tomato SoupCream Tomato Soup28 recipes