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Deviled Tomatoes

A dish of sliced tomatoes topped with a seasoned yolk and butter mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Deviled Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Pound the boiled yolks and mix in the melted butter, vinegar, powdered sugar, mustard, salt, and cayenne pepper.

  2. Heat the mixture almost to a boil, then stir in the lightly whipped raw eggs until it begins to thicken.

  3. Set the bowl in hot water while you slice the tomatoes into ½ inch thick slices.

Cook and serve

  1. Broil the tomato slices over a clear fire on a wire broiler.

  2. Place the broiled tomatoes on a hot chafing dish and pour the hot sauce over them.

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. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,482 recipes

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

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Hard boiled egg yolks
Pounded into a smooth base that gives the sauce its body and richness.
Raw eggs
Thicken the warm sauce as they set when stirred in just below boiling.
Melted butter
Adds fat for a smooth, rich texture and a silky mouthfeel to the sauce.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the sauce and balances the rich yolks and butter.
Firm tomatoes
Provide the base that holds its shape under the broiler and carries the sauce.

The step that matters

Heating the sauce and adding the raw eggs. Raw eggs must be heated gently, just below boiling, so they thicken the sauce. If the mixture boils or overheats, the eggs can scramble and the sauce turns grainy instead of smooth.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, vinegar, sugar, mustard, 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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