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Tomatoes with Mushrooms

Grilled tomatoes and mushrooms served on buttered toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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 ↓

Tomatoes with Mushrooms

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Preheat the grill.

  2. Place a small piece of butter on each tomato and mushroom.

  3. Grill for 3 to 4 minutes without turning.

  4. Toast the bread and butter it.

Assemble and serve

  1. Place a piece of tomato and a mushroom on each round of bread.

  2. Pour any remaining butter or liquid from the grilling tin over the top.

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 + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,719 recipes

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

  3. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

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

  5. Mushroom + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Soften under the grill and add juicy, slightly acidic flavour to the topping.
Mushrooms
Brown under the grill and add savoury, meaty flavour and moisture.
Butter
Carries heat to the vegetables and adds richness and browning to the toast.
Bread
Provides a crisp base that holds the topping and soaks up the juices.

The step that matters

Grilling without turning. Leaving the tomatoes and mushrooms untouched lets their surfaces brown and caramelise while the interiors soften. Turning too early can break them apart and release their juices before browning forms.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Tomatothe original
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Potatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, butter, 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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