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Tomato Delight

A toast topped with tomato sauce and fried pig brains.

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 ↓

Tomato Delight

Ingredients

Directions

Make the tomato sauce

  1. Place the tomatoes in a saucepan with the butter, cayenne, and salt.

  2. Cook until the tomatoes are tender, then strain through a fine sieve.

Cook the brains

  1. Fry the brains until cooked.

Assemble and serve

  1. Spread the tomato mixture on the toast and place a small portion of brain in the center.

  2. Reheat in the oven and serve hot.

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 + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + buttertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,918 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Break down into a smooth sauce that provides moisture and acidity to the toast.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky texture to the tomato sauce.
Pigs brains
Provide the soft, rich, tender centerpiece of the dish.
Hot buttered toast
Gives a crisp, warm base that holds the sauce and brains.

The step that matters

Fry the brains until cooked. Brains are delicate and must be cooked through for safety and a tender texture. Undercooked brains stay soft and can be unpleasant, while overcooking makes them dry and crumbly.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, 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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