Name: Tomatoes with Brown Sauce
Ingredients: 4 ripe tomatoes; 2 tablespoons butter; 1 cup bread crumbs; ½ cup chopped mushrooms; ¼ cup chopped ham (or herbs, or onions); ¼ cup brown sauce

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 27,232 recipes mention both. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Tomatoes with Brown Sauce

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Slice the tomatoes and lay them in a buttered flat dish.

Layer and bake

Cover the tomatoes with bread crumbs.
Strew chopped mushrooms and ham (or herbs, or onions) over the crumbs.
Moisten with brown sauce, cover with more crumbs, and add bits of butter.
Bake until golden brown.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Tomato + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together2,719 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Bread + hamtop 7% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together2,536 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together1,013 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

Ripe tomatoes: Form the juicy base layer that softens and moistens the dish as it bakes.
Bread crumbs: Form the crumb layers that absorb juices and crisp to a golden top.
Butter: Adds richness and helps the top crumbs brown as they bake.
Mushrooms: Add savory moisture and earthy flavor to the filling layer.
Brown sauce: Moistens the layers and adds savory, deeply browned flavor.

“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.