Skip to main content
Side

Stuffed Baked Tomatoes

Ripe tomatoes hollowed and stuffed with chopped cabbage, onion, bread crumbs and sweet cream, then baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cabbage and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,081 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stuffed Baked Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Cut a thin slice from the blossom end of each tomato and scoop out the pulp without breaking the rind.

  2. In a bowl, mix the chopped cabbage, onion, bread crumbs, tomato pulp, salt, pepper, sugar, and sweet cream until well combined.

Fill and bake

  1. Fill the tomato shells with the mixture and replace the slices on top.

  2. Place the tomatoes cut ends up in a buttered baking dish and add enough water to prevent burning.

  3. Top each tomato with a small lump of butter and bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 30 minutes until well done.

  4. Add another bit of butter on each tomato before serving in the same dish.

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. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Cabbage + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,001 recipes

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

  5. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Their shells hold the filling, and their pulp adds moisture and tomato flavour to the mixture.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the liquid from the pulp and cream, helping the filling hold together and set.
Sweet cream
Adds richness and moisture, softening the filling as it bakes.
Cabbage
Forms the bulk of the filling and gives it body as it cooks down.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the tops brown and flavour the tomatoes.

The step that matters

Scooping the tomatoes without breaking the rind. The rind is the only container for the filling. A torn shell lets the liquid escape during baking, so the filling dries out and leaks into the dish.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, onion, bread, pepper, sugar, cream, 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.

You might also like

Onion PuddingOnion Pudding9 recipesEggplant CakesEggplant Cakes34 recipesEscalloped Tomatoes (Scalloped Tomatoes)Escalloped Tomatoes (Scalloped Tomatoes)25 recipesParsnip CroquettesParsnip Croquettes12 recipes