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Escalloped Tomatoes

Layered tomatoes with bread crumbs, celery, butter, salt, pepper, and cream, then baked until heated.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Escalloped Tomatoes

Why it works: Tomato and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 3,377 recipes mention both. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Escalloped Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Assemble

  1. Layer tomatoes and bread crumbs in a casserole or baking dish.

  2. Add chopped celery and season with butter, salt, and pepper between each layer.

  3. Pour ½ cup of cream over the top.

Bake

  1. Bake until heated through.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

  1. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together27,232 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together41,516 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Provide the main body and moisture of the dish as they cook down.
Bread crumbs
Absorb tomato juices and give the layers a soft, set structure.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping flavor carry through the layers.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, softening the crumbs as the dish bakes.

Flavor stand-ins for the celery

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

  1. Celerythe original
  2. Parsleyabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Thymeabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Garlicabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, bread, butter, pepper, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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