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Fried and Broiled Tomatoes

Fried and broiled tomato slices served with a butter‑milk sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Fried and Broiled Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Cut the tomatoes into thick slices, about ¼ inch thick.

  2. Season with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  3. Dredge the slices in flour or dip in egg and coat with breadcrumbs.

Cook the tomatoes

  1. Fry in a mixture of hot butter and lard until browned on both sides.

  2. Alternatively, broil on a well‑greased grill after preparing as for frying.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. For the sauce, cream the butter, whisk in the milk, and add 1 tablespoon of flour.

  2. Simmer until thickened, then season with salt, pepper, and a pinch of mace.

  3. Pour the sauce onto a hot serving dish and arrange the tomatoes in the center.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Tomato + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

Flour and butter 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

Large ripe tomatoes
Provide the main body and juicy flesh that softens and browns when cooked.
Flour
Forms a dry coating that helps the slices brown and crisp in the fat.
Egg
Binds the breadcrumb coating so it adheres to the tomato slices.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer crust when fried.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour, and browns the coating in the pan.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving it a smooth, creamy body.

The step that matters

Fry in hot butter and lard until browned on both sides. If the fat is not hot enough, the coating absorbs grease and turns soggy instead of crisping. Hot fat sears the surface quickly, forming a crust that browns and holds its shape.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, flour, egg, butter, milk. 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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