Why it works: Tomato and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 33% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,667 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Tomato Figs
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Skin the tomatoes and layer them with sugar in a saucepan.
Boil very slowly until nearly clear.
Carefully lift the tomatoes and spread them on a platter.
Dry in the sun
Place the platter in the sun for one or two days, covering with glass.
Sprinkle occasionally with granulated sugar.
Once dry, pack the tomatoes between layers of waxed paper.
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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Tomato + sugartop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,667 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Tomatoes
- Provide the fruit that shrinks and concentrates in flavor as moisture leaves.
- Granulated sugar
- Draws water out of the tomatoes and adds sweetness, helping preserve them as they dry.
The step that matters
Boil very slowly until nearly clear. Gentle heat lets sugar slowly penetrate the tomato flesh without breaking the skins or collapsing the fruit. Rapid boiling can toughen or break the tomatoes, leaving them ragged.
“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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