Name: Curried Tomatoes
Ingredients: 1 quart stewed tomatoes; 1 teaspoon curry powder; Salt to taste; 1 cup boiled rice; Bread crumbs; Butter

Why it works: Tomato and rice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,065 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Curried Tomatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Wash the rice in several changes of cold water.
Add the curry powder and salt to the tomatoes; mix well.

Assemble and bake

Layer the tomatoes in a baking dish, followed by a layer of rice, and repeat until all ingredients are used, finishing with tomatoes on top.
Sprinkle bread crumbs over the top and dot with butter.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.
Serve in the baking dish.

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.

Tomato + ricetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,065 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,013 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Rice + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,259 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,645 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Stewed tomatoes: Provide moisture and acidity that flavour the rice as the dish bakes.
Boiled rice: Forms the bulk of the dish and absorbs the tomato juices as it bakes.
Bread crumbs: Form a crisp, browned topping over the surface during baking.
Butter: Adds fat that helps the bread crumbs brown and enriches the topping.