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Mother's Broiled Tomatoes

A dish of sliced tomatoes broiled and served with a butter, pepper, salt, sugar, and mustard seasoning.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Mother's Broiled Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice tomatoes 1-2 inches thick without peeling.

Broil and season

  1. Broil on a gridiron for a few minutes until cooked.

  2. Mix hot butter with pepper, coarse sea salt, sugar, and made mustard.

  3. Dip each tomato slice in the mixture and place on a hot dish.

  4. Heat remaining seasoning to a boil.

  5. Pour the boiling seasoning over the tomatoes and serve immediately.

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. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Sugar + mustardtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,424 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

Large firm tomatoes
Form the main body of the dish; firmness holds their shape under broiling.
Hot butter
Carries the seasonings and adds richness and moisture to the tomatoes.
Made mustard
Adds sharp, tangy flavour that balances the sweetness of the sugar.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown under the broiler.

The step that matters

Broil the tomatoes until just cooked. Broiling too long collapses the tomato flesh and releases its juices, leaving the slices watery and soft. Brief high heat softens them while keeping their shape and letting the surface caramelise slightly.

Swap the tomato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, sugar, mustard. 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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