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Baking

Stuffed Tomatoes

A baked dish of tomatoes filled with a crumbly mixture of tomato pulp, bread crumbs, sugar, onion juice, butter, salt, and cayenne.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Stuffed Tomatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the filling

  1. Cut a piece from the top of each tomato and scoop out the inside.

  2. Chop the scooped-out tomato and mix it with the bread crumbs, sugar, onion juice, melted butter, salt, and cayenne.

  3. Fill the tomatoes with the stuffing mixture.

Bake and brown

  1. Arrange the stuffed tomatoes in a pudding dish and sprinkle the tops with additional bread crumbs.

  2. Bake covered at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes, then uncover and brown the tops.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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 stuffing and release moisture that steams the filling as it bakes.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the tomato and butter juices and give the stuffing body and texture.
Melted butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the top crumbs brown.
White sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the tomato.
Onion juice
Adds savory onion aroma to the stuffing.

The step that matters

Brown the tops after the covered bake. Baking covered first lets the tomatoes soften and cook through without drying out. Uncovering afterward lets surface moisture evaporate so the bread crumbs toast and brown.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Sweet potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, bread, sugar, butter, 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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