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Stewed Tomatoes

A simple tomato stew made with fresh tomatoes, salt, sugar, pepper, butter, and optional thickeners.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Stewed Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the skins from the tomatoes by placing them in boiling water for a few minutes.

  2. Cut the tomatoes into pieces and place them in a granite-ware saucepan.

  3. Add salt, sugar, pepper, and butter to the saucepan.

Cook and finish

  1. Cook until the tomatoes are tender.

  2. If desired, thicken the mixture with cornstarch mixed in cold water or add breadcrumbs.

  3. Chopped onions can be added for extra flavor.

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. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 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

Tomatoes
Provide the main body and liquid of the dish as they soften during cooking.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel to the cooked tomatoes.
Cornstarch
Thickens the cooking liquid into a looser sauce when mixed with cold water first.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb excess liquid and thicken the stewed tomatoes.

The step that matters

Adding cornstarch in cold water. Cornstarch must be mixed into cold water before it goes into hot liquid, because added dry it clumps and fails to thicken evenly.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, sugar, pepper, butter):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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