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Creamed Tomatoes

Creamed Tomatoes is a dish of sliced tomatoes sautéed in butter and lard, finished with a cream gravy.

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 ↓

Creamed Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Slice the tomatoes thinly and season with pepper and salt.

  2. Roll the seasoned tomatoes in flour.

Fry and make the gravy

  1. Fry the tomatoes in a mixture of butter and lard over medium heat until golden.

  2. Remove the tomatoes and add a little flour to the skillet to make gravy.

  3. Stir in the cream and cook until thickened.

Serve

  1. Pour the gravy over the fried tomatoes and serve hot.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Provide the main body and slightly acidic, juicy flavor of the dish.
All-purpose flour
Coats the tomato slices and thickens the skillet gravy for body.
Butter
Adds fat for frying and contributes browning and rich flavor.
Lard
Adds fat for frying and helps the coating brown evenly.
Cream
Enriches the gravy, adding richness and a smooth, thick texture.

The step that matters

Fry the tomatoes until golden. Medium heat lets the flour coating brown through the tomato slices without burning. Too high a heat scorches the flour and butter before the tomato softens, leaving a bitter taste.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, flour, butter, cream):

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, flour, butter, cream. 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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