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Baked Stuffed Tomatoes

A baked dish of tomatoes filled with a breadcrumb and onion mixture, topped with butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Baked Stuffed Tomatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Wipe the tomatoes clean and cut off the blossom end.

  3. Scoop out the pulp and mix it with the bread crumbs, chopped onion, salt, paprika, and beaten egg.

Stuff and bake

  1. Fill the tomatoes with the mixture, place a piece of butter on top, and sprinkle with additional bread crumbs.

  2. Place the tomatoes in a buttered baking pan with hot water covering the bottom.

  3. Baste with melted butter mixed with a little water.

  4. Bake for 15 to 30 minutes until the tomatoes are tender.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  3. Tomato + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

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

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Hold the filling and soften as they bake, becoming tender and juicy.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the tomato pulp and egg to form a filling that holds its shape.
Egg
Binds the filling together so it sets lightly when baked.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the topping brown while keeping the tomatoes moist.

The step that matters

Baking time and tenderness. The record gives a wide range of 15 to 30 minutes, so the tomatoes should be checked for tenderness rather than timed alone. Baking too long can collapse the tomato walls and dry the filling.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, bread, egg, butter, parsley):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, bread, egg, butter, parsley. 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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