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Stuffed Tomatoes, American Style

A tomato stuffed with a mixture of onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, breadcrumbs, egg yolks, and parsley, baked until heated.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Stuffed Tomatoes, American Style

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Prepare the tomatoes by scooping out the flesh.

  2. In a saucepan, melt the butter and lightly fry the onions. Add the chopped tomatoes and the scooped-out flesh to the saucepan.

  3. When the moisture is nearly reduced, add the chopped mushrooms. Cover the saucepan and continue cooking until the moisture is reduced.

  4. Stir in the bread crumbs, salt, and pepper, and cook for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and mix in the egg yolks and parsley.

  5. Allow the mixture to cool, then stuff the tomatoes with it.

Bake and serve

  1. Sprinkle fresh bread crumbs on top and place a piece of butter on each tomato.

  2. Arrange the stuffed tomatoes in a buttered baking pan.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until heated through.

  4. Serve with tomato sauce.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,719 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  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
Hold the filling as the shell and, chopped, supply moisture and body to the stuffing.
Onions
Soften and sweeten as they fry, building a savory base for the filling.
Bread crumbs
Absorb excess moisture and give the filling a light, set body.
Egg yolks
Bind the filling and help it set as it heats, adding richness.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor to the filling and browns the tops in the oven.

The step that matters

Reduce the moisture before adding the egg yolks. Tomatoes release a lot of water. If the filling is still wet when the yolks go in, it stays loose and may not set well, so cook it down until thick before cooling and stuffing.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, butter, mushroom, bread, pepper, egg, 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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