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Fricasseed Tomatoes

A tomato fricassee cooked with butter, flour, and sweet cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Fricasseed Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the tomatoes in half without peeling them.

  2. Melt the butter in a broad enameled pan over moderate heat.

  3. Sprinkle the halved tomatoes with salt and pepper.

  4. Dip the tomatoes in whole wheat flour.

Cook and serve

  1. Place the tomatoes cut side up in the pan and cover it.

  2. Cook until the tomatoes are tender but not broken, lifting them occasionally to prevent burning.

  3. Pour in the sweet cream.

  4. Let it come to a scald before serving.

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. Tomato + wheattop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together468 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

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

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

  4. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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 juicy, tender texture of the dish.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and helps the tomatoes brown lightly in the pan.
Whole wheat flour
Coats the tomatoes so they hold together and thicken the pan juices slightly.
Sweet cream
Adds richness and body, and mellows the tomato acidity once heated.

The step that matters

Cooking the tomatoes covered over moderate heat. Tomatoes are mostly water. If the heat is too high or they are left unturned, the flour-coated surfaces can scorch before the interior softens. Gentle, covered heat lets them become tender while keeping their shape, and lifting them prevents sticking and burning.

Swap the tomato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, wheat, flour, 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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