Name: Stuffed Tomatobs
Ingredients: 4 large tomatoes; 2 cups bread crumbs; 1 tablespoon grated onion; 2 teaspoons chopped parsley; 1 teaspoon salt; ¼ teaspoon pepper; 1 tablespoon butter

Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 Tomatobs

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
Cut a slice from the stem end of each tomato and scoop out the insides.
In a bowl, combine bread crumbs, grated onion, chopped parsley, salt, pepper, and butter.

Stuff and bake

Fill each tomato with the mixture.
Place the stuffed tomatoes in a baking dish and bake for 30-40 minutes.

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.

Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,633 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + parsleytop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,398 recipes

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

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 shell that holds the filling while it bakes.
Bread crumbs: Absorb moisture and bind the filling so it holds its shape.
Butter: Adds richness and helps the filling brown lightly in the oven.

Swap the onion

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

Capsicumfits better
Carrotfits better
Potatofits better
Onionthe original

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