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Stuffed Tomatoes

Tomatoes filled with a mixture of chicken, mushrooms, breadcrumbs, butter, salt, pepper, and parsley, then baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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

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

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Scoop out the seeds from the tomatoes.

Stuff and bake

  1. In a bowl, mix the chicken, mushrooms, bread crumbs, melted butter, salt, pepper, and parsley.

  2. Fill the tomatoes with the mixture.

  3. Place the stuffed tomatoes in a baking dish and bake for 30 minutes, basting with melted butter.

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. Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

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

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

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

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

  5. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

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

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 cooks.
Chicken
Provides the savoury, protein-rich body of the stuffing.
Bread crumbs
Absorb juices and help the stuffing hold together as it bakes.
Mushrooms
Add moisture and earthy flavour to the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the tops brown as they are basted.

The step that matters

Scoop out the seeds from the tomatoes. Removing the seeds and watery pulp leaves room for the filling and reduces excess liquid, which would otherwise dilute the stuffing and make the tomatoes soggy during baking.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Marjoramfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, chicken, mushroom, bread, 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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