Why it works: Biscuit and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 368 recipes. Both carry maltol, which smells caramel, sweet. The science ↓
Green Tomato Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Pare and remove the stem end from the tomatoes, then slice them very thin.
Line a pie pan with the biscuit dough.
Fill and bake
Fill the pan with the sliced tomatoes, heaping them slightly.
Grate nutmeg over the tomatoes.
Add ½ cup of butter and 1 cup of sugar if the pan is deep.
Sprinkle a small handful of flour over the mixture.
Pour in ½ cup of vinegar before adding the top crust.
Bake for 30 minutes and serve hot.
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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Biscuit + nutmegtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together368 recipes
Shared aroma: maltol (caramel, sweet).
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Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Biscuit + flourtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together889 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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
- Medium-sized tomatoes
- Form the bulk of the filling and provide the pie's main body and tartness.
- Biscuit dough
- Forms the crust that holds the filling and browns in the oven.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, giving the filling a softer, rounder texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and balances the acidity of the green tomatoes.
- Flour
- Thickens the juices released by the tomatoes as the pie bakes.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour of the green tomatoes.
The step that matters
Slicing and layering the tomatoes. Thin, evenly sliced tomatoes cook through at the same rate, and flour sprinkled over them helps thicken the released juices so the filling sets rather than running out when cut.
Swap the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (biscuit, nutmeg, butter, sugar, flour, vinegar):
- Arrowrootfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Mustardfits better
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against biscuit, nutmeg, butter, sugar, flour, vinegar. 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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