Why it works: Tomato and buttermilk work together. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and 130 recipes mention both. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: egg, milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Prepare the tomatoes
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Cut a very thin slice from bottom of each tomato so that it won't wobble. Do not cut into the liquid part of the tomato.
Cut a ½ inch slice off tops of tomatoes and scoop out seeds and pulp from cavity, leaving the shell of the tomato intact and being careful not to penetrate the bottom.
Sprinkle insides of tomatoes with salt and freshly ground pepper.
Add the eggs and bake
Put ½ tablespoon buttermilk in bottom of each shell.
Fill each shell with a raw egg, which will come almost to the top of tomato.
Carefully spoon 1 tablespoon buttermilk on top of each.
Sprinkle with salt.
Place in shallow baking dish and bake 25 minutes, or until eggs are set but not overcooked.
This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.
Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Tomato + buttermilktop 16% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together130 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Buttermilk + eggtop 13% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together2,870 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Tomato + eggtop 23% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together5,162 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Tomatoes
- Form the edible shell that holds the egg while it bakes and softens as it cooks.
- Eggs
- Set into a firm, tender custard when heated, filling the tomato cavity.
- Buttermilk
- Adds moisture and mild tang, keeping the egg tender and the tomato juicy.
The step that matters
Bake until the eggs are just set. Egg proteins set firmly as they heat, so pulling the eggs once the whites are opaque and the yolks still soft keeps them tender and prevents a rubbery texture.
“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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