Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Baked Tomatoes
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the tomatoes
Peel the tomatoes with a sharp knife.
Cut a piece from the top and scoop out most of the pulp, leaving the walls intact.
Season the removed pulp with salt, pepper, sugar, onion juice, and salad oil.
Chop the pulp coarsely and put it back into the tomatoes.
Replace the tops, sprinkle with oil, paprika, and salt.
Arrange the tomatoes on a baking pan.
Bake and serve
Bake covered at 350°F (175°C) for 20 minutes, then uncover and bake for an additional 5 minutes.
Serve on buttered Graham bread toast.
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.
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,633 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,013 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 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
- Form the shell that holds the filling, and soften as they bake into a juicy, tender base.
- Salad oil
- Carries flavor through the pulp and adds richness to the filling and the topping.
- Sugar
- Balances the tomato's acidity and adds a touch of sweetness.
- Graham bread
- Serves as a toasted, buttered base for the baked tomatoes.
The step that matters
Bake covered, then uncover. Baking covered traps steam so the tomato walls soften and the filling heats through; uncovering for the last few minutes lets surface moisture evaporate and the topping brown lightly.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, pepper, sugar, butter, bread):
- Capsicumfits better
- Potatofits better
- Sweet potatofits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, sugar, butter, bread. 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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