Why it works: Biscuit and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 889 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Green Tomato Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Peel the tomatoes and remove the stem end.
Line a pie pan with biscuit dough.
Fill the pie
Slice the tomatoes very thin and fill the pan heaping.
Grate nutmeg over the tomatoes.
Add ½ cup of butter and 1 cup of sugar.
Sprinkle a small handful of flour over the mixture.
Pour in ½ cup of vinegar before adding the top crust.
Bake and serve
Bake for 30 minutes and serve hot.
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.
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Biscuit + flourtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together889 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,806 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Tomato + vinegartop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,063 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Medium-sized tomatoes
- Form the bulk of the filling and release juice that the pie absorbs as it bakes.
- Biscuit dough
- Forms the pie crust, holding the filling in a firm, sliceable shell.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a softer, more rounded mouthfeel in the filling.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the natural sharpness of unripe tomatoes.
- Flour
- Thickens the juices released by the tomatoes so the filling sets rather than running.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that gives the filling a bright, tangy edge.
The step that matters
Sprinkle the flour over the mixture. Flour is the thickener that binds the juices released by the tomatoes during baking. Spreading it evenly over the filling helps it thicken uniformly, so the pie sets instead of running when cut.
Swap the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (biscuit, butter, sugar, flour, vinegar):
- Arrowrootfits better
- Mustardfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against biscuit, butter, sugar, flour, vinegar. 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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