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Tomato Butter

A tangy tomato and apple spread made by simmering tomatoes and apples until thickened, sweetened with brown sugar, and flavored with lemon and ginger.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,154 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Tomato Butter

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Scald the tomatoes and remove the skins.

  2. Add the same amount of prepared apples as tomatoes.

Cook and flavour

  1. Cook slowly, stirring often, until the mixture thickens to a marmalade consistency.

  2. When the apples begin to break down, sweeten with light brown sugar to taste.

  3. Add the juice of 1 lemon and 1 teaspoon of ginger, if desired.

Serve

  1. Serve in a glass dish with cake.

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. Lemon + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

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

  2. Apple + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,424 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + gingertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,887 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,592 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + appletop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together548 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

Tomatoes
Provide the main body and tart flavour of the butter as they cook down.
Apples
Break down and add pectin and body, helping the mixture thicken.
Light brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a caramel note that balances the tomato's acidity.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Cook slowly, stirring often. Thick, sugar-rich mixtures scorch easily on the bottom of the pan. Low heat and frequent stirring let water evaporate gradually so the mixture thickens evenly without burning.

Swap the ginger

The recipe marks ginger as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, apple, sugar, lemon):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Corianderfits about as well
  3. Gingerthe original
  4. Celeryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, apple, sugar, lemon. 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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