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Egg and Tomato Sandwiches

A sandwich made with a tomato and egg mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Egg and Tomato Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the tomatoes

  1. Melt the butter in a frying pan over medium heat.

  2. Cook the tomatoes in the butter until most of the liquid has evaporated, then set aside to cool.

  3. If using fresh tomatoes, scald and skin them before cooking.

Make the filling

  1. Beat the eggs and stir them into the cooled tomatoes, adding seasoning to taste.

  2. Stir the mixture with a knife until set, then transfer to a bowl to cool.

Assemble

  1. Use the mixture to make sandwiches.

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

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

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Tomato + buttertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Egg + peppertop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

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

Egg and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set when gently cooked, binding the filling into a spreadable mixture.
Tomatoes
Add moisture, acidity and sweetness; cooking them down concentrates their flavour.
Butter
Adds fat and richness and helps the tomatoes cook without sticking to the pan.

The step that matters

Stirring the egg into the tomatoes until set. Egg proteins set with heat, so over-cooking makes the mixture dry and rubbery, while under-cooking leaves it wet and loose. Stir gently over moderate heat and stop once it holds together, since it keeps firming as it cools.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, pepper, butter. 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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