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Tomato Rarebit

A creamy tomato and cheese sauce served over toasted crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Tomato Rarebit

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add the flour to the butter.

  3. Add the cream, stirring until the mixture thickens.

  4. Mix in the tomatoes and baking soda.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the cheese.

  2. Add the eggs.

  3. Add the seasonings.

  4. Stir until the cheese melts.

  5. Serve on toasted crackers.

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. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  4. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  5. Cheese + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,805 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

Butter
Enriches the sauce with fat and adds richness to the base.
All-purpose flour
Thickens the butter and cream into a smooth, stable sauce.
Thin cream
Provides liquid and moisture that the flour thickens into a creamy base.
Cheese
Melts into the sauce to give the rarebit its savory flavor and body.
Eggs
Set when heated, adding body and helping bind the cheese sauce.

The step that matters

Add the eggs to the warm sauce. Eggs can scramble if they meet high heat directly. Adding them slightly beaten to a warm, not boiling, mixture and stirring steadily lets them thicken gently and evenly.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

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