Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 27,232 recipes mention both. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Escalloped 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
Remove the skins from the tomatoes and slice them.
Layer and bake
Spread a layer of sliced tomatoes in the bottom of a baking dish and season well with salt.
Add a layer of coarse bread crumbs over the tomatoes, followed by plenty of butter and a little finely chopped onion.
Repeat the layers until the dish is full, finishing with a layer of bread crumbs on top.
Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 1 hour.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together20,633 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together1,013 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Bread + oniontop 15% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together8,676 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Ripe tomatoes
- Provide the main body and juice that softens and forms the sauce as they bake.
- Coarse bread crumbs
- Absorb tomato juice and butter, giving the layers structure and a lightly crisp top.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, helping the crumbs brown and carrying flavour through the dish.
- Finely chopped onion
- Adds a mild savoury note that blends into the tomato and butter.
The step that matters
Finishing with a bread crumb layer on top. Crumbs that are well coated in butter brown in the oven and form a crisp top, while the layers beneath stay soft and saucy.
Flavor stand-ins for the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, bread, butter):
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Potatobetter flavor fit
- Asparagusabout as good a flavor fit
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, bread, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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