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Tomatoes with Shredded Wheat Biscuits

A baked dish of sliced tomatoes and shredded wheat biscuits soaked in milk, buttered and seasoned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Tomatoes with Shredded Wheat Biscuits

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

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Place halved shredded wheat biscuits in a baking pan.

  3. Pour enough milk over the biscuits to soak them.

  4. Drizzle a little melted butter over each biscuit.

  5. Arrange sliced tomatoes on top of the biscuits.

  6. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and add small bits of butter.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake for 15 minutes.

  2. Serve hot.

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. Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  4. Tomato + wheattop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together468 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

  5. Wheat + biscuittop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together116 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Provide the main topping, adding juicy moisture and a fresh, acidic flavour as they cook.
Shredded wheat biscuits
Form the base layer, soaking up milk and butter to become soft and tender.
Milk
Soaks the biscuits, softening them and adding moisture for a custard-like texture.
Butter
Adds fat that enriches flavour and helps the top brown lightly in the oven.

The step that matters

Soaking the biscuits with milk. The milk must fully soak the biscuits so they soften evenly as they bake. Dry patches stay hard and chalky, while over-soaking can make the base soggy and loose.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wheat, biscuit, milk, butter, pepper):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Sweet potatofits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against wheat, biscuit, milk, butter, pepper. 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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