Name: Baked Tomatoes
Ingredients: 4 large tomatoes; Salt to taste; Pepper to taste; 1 tablespoon sugar; 1 cup rolled cracker or bread crumbs; 2 tablespoons butter; 2 tablespoons water

Why it works: Bread and butter 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 ↓

Baked Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Cut the tomatoes in half and place them cut side up in a shallow dish.
Sprinkle a little salt, pepper, and sugar on each layer of tomatoes.
Cover with rolled cracker or bread crumbs, then add another layer of tomatoes.
Repeat until the dish is full.
Dot with small pieces of butter and add water around the tomatoes.

Bake

Bake for at least 1 hour, or up to 2 hours for a larger dish.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,013 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,964 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 juices that soften and flavour the dish as it bakes.
Rolled cracker or bread crumbs: Soak up tomato juices and add body, giving the layers a softer, binding texture.
Butter: Adds richness and fat, helping the top brown and the flavour become rounder.
Sugar: Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the tomatoes.