Name: Fried Tomatoes
Ingredients: Tomatoes; Flour; Cream or rich milk

Why it works: Flour and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 30,481 recipes. Both carry acetaldehyde, which smells pungent, ethereal. The science ↓

Fried Tomatoes

Ingredients

Tomatoes
Flour
Cream or rich milk

Directions

Heat a skillet until very hot.
Slice tomatoes and coat them in flour.
Place the floured side of the tomatoes down in the skillet.
Cook until brown on one side, then turn them over.
Once done, pour hot cream or rich milk over the tomatoes.

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.

Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together30,481 recipes

Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
Tomato + flourtop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,065 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Tomato + creamtop 32% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,034 recipes

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