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Scrambled Eggs and Tomatoes

Scrambled eggs cooked with tomatoes and onions, served on fried bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Scrambled Eggs and Tomatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA very quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove seeds from the tomato and finely mince it with the onion.

Cook

  1. In a pan, melt butter and add the minced tomato and onion.

  2. Season with salt and pepper, and cook until the onion is soft but not browned.

  3. Add the beaten eggs and stir until nearly set.

Serve

  1. Serve immediately within a circle of fried bread sippets.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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

Eggs
Set into soft curds that give the dish its body and structure.
Tomato
Adds moisture and a bright, acidic flavour to the eggs.
Onion
Adds sweetness and savoury depth when softened gently in butter.
Butter
Carries the vegetables and enriches the eggs with fat for a silky texture.

The step that matters

Add the eggs and stir until nearly set. Eggs turn from silky to rubbery and dry if overcooked, because the proteins tighten with too much heat. Removing the pan from the heat while the eggs are still glossy lets residual heat finish them gently.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

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