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Tomato Toast

A tomato and celery mixture served on hot buttered toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,377 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Tomato Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Cook the tomatoes until well done.

  2. Add the chopped celery and baking soda.

  3. Stir in the milk and butter.

  4. Thicken the mixture with flour.

  5. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve

  1. Serve the mixture on hot buttered toast.

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 + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Celery + walnuttop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

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 flavour of the sauce once cooked down.
Milk
Adds creaminess and moisture to the tomato mixture.
Flour
Thickens the liquid into a spoonable sauce as it cooks.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth fat content to the sauce.
Celery
Adds a mild, fresh vegetable flavour and some texture.

The step that matters

Thicken the mixture with flour. Flour must be mixed in evenly so it hydrates and swells rather than forming lumps. Cooking it briefly thickens the liquid and removes the raw starch taste.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, milk, walnut, butter, flour, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, milk, walnut, butter, flour, pepper. 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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