Name: Pine Kernels and Tomatoes
Ingredients: 2 to 3 oz Italian pine kernels; 1 lb fresh tomatoes; 1 tablespoon butter

Why it works: Pine and tomato work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 323 recipes. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Pine Kernels and Tomatoes

Ingredients

2 to 3 oz Italian pine kernels
1 lb fresh tomatoes
1 tablespoon butter

Directions

Dip the tomatoes in boiling water, peel, and slice them.
Fry the sliced tomatoes with the pine kernels in butter until cooked.
Serve warm.

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.

Pine + tomatotop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together323 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Pine + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together358 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,918 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pine kernels: Add a toasty, nutty flavor and a crisp bite against the soft tomatoes.
Fresh tomatoes: Provide the main body and juicy moisture that cooks down in the butter.
Butter: Adds richness and helps the tomatoes and kernels brown in the pan.