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Stuffed Tomatoes

Tomatoes hollowed and filled with macaroni, cheese, and spices, then baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cheese and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,130 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 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Wipe and remove thin slices from the stem ends of the tomatoes.

  2. Scoop out most of the pulp using a small spoon.

  3. Sprinkle the inside of the tomato cases with salt, invert, and let stand for 30 minutes.

Make the filling

  1. Cook the macaroni in boiling salted water until soft.

  2. Add the grated cheese and half of the tomato pulp to the macaroni.

  3. Season the mixture with salt and paprika.

Fill and bake

  1. Fill the tomato cases with the mixture, sprinkle the tops with buttered bread crumbs.

  2. Bake for 15 minutes at 400°F (200°C).

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. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Tomato + cheesetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,896 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
Serve as the hollow cases that hold the filling and soften as they bake.
Macaroni
Provides the bulk and starchy body of the filling once cooked soft.
Grated cheese
Melts into the filling, adding richness and binding it together.

“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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