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Tomatoes with Walnuts

A baked tomato dish with walnuts, bread crumbs, cheese, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Tomatoes with Walnuts

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Plunge tomatoes in boiling water, then peel them.

  2. Place peeled tomatoes in a buttered saucepan to bake.

  3. Rub tomatoes through a sieve.

Make the casserole

  1. Cook chopped onion in butter until light brown.

  2. Add the sieved tomatoes, walnuts, bread crumbs, and cheese to the onion and stir over heat until well blended.

  3. Add beaten eggs, salt, and pepper, then cook for 5 minutes.

  4. Serve hot on rounds of toast.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

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

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 once sieved into a smooth base.
Eggs
Set when heated, binding the mixture into a soft, sliceable custard-like texture.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and help thicken the mixture so it holds together.
Walnuts
Add crunch and a rich, nutty flavor that contrasts the soft texture.
Butter
Adds fat and richness and helps brown the onion for savory flavor.
Cheese
Adds savory flavor and fat, melting into the blend for richness.

The step that matters

Adding the beaten eggs. Eggs set when heated, so they should be stirred in off the most intense heat and cooked gently. Overheating can make them curdle or turn grainy, while adequate cooking sets the mixture.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, butter, walnut, meat, bread, cheese, egg):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, butter, walnut, meat, bread, cheese, egg. 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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