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Fried Tomatoes

Fried tomatoes are tomatoes coated in flour and cooked in a skillet, finished with hot cream and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Fried Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the tomatoes in half and flour the cut side.

Cook

  1. Heat a skillet until very hot and place the cut side down.

  2. Cook until browned on one side, then turn them over.

Finish

  1. When done, pour hot cream and milk over the tomatoes.

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. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Tomato + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

  4. Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  5. Tomato + flourtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Tomatoes
Provide the main body and juice; cut side browns in the hot pan for flavour.
Flour
Coats the cut side so it browns and forms a light crust.
Cream
Adds richness and fat to the sauce poured over the tomatoes.
Milk
Thins the cream mixture and adds dairy moisture to the sauce.

The step that matters

Searing the cut side in a very hot skillet. A very hot pan browns the floured surface quickly, creating flavour and a crust before the tomato softens and releases too much liquid. A cooler pan lets the tomatoes steam and turn soggy.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, cream, milk):

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, cream, milk. 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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