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Stuffed Tomatoes

Stuffed tomatoes filled with a seasoned chicken and breadcrumb mixture, baked and served with sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Colville, Jessie Henderson. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Stuffed Tomatoes

six tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Select six large, firm tomatoes; do not peel them.

  2. Cut a thin slice from the top of each tomato and, with a teaspoon, remove the inside.

Make the filling

  1. Put a tablespoonful of butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add a tablespoonful of chopped onion to the saucepan and cook for one minute.

  3. Add half a cupful of finely-chopped chicken, veal, or any leftover meat to the saucepan.

  4. Season the mixture with salt, cayenne pepper, a little chopped parsley, and a teaspoonful of sugar.

  5. Add the tomato pulp and half a cupful of soft bread crumbs to the saucepan.

  6. Stir the mixture over the fire until smooth.

Bake and serve

  1. Fill the tomatoes with the mixture and place them in a baking dish.

  2. Dot bits of butter over the top of each tomato.

  3. Put the dish into the oven and bake for twenty minutes.

  4. Add just a dash of Worcestershire sauce to the liquor in the pan.

  5. Serve the tomatoes with the sauce from the pan poured over them.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

824Calories
46 gProtein
16 gFat
119 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 7 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Chicken100g cooked165
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Soy Sauce1 tbsp (15ml)9
Liquornot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Colville, Jessie Henderson. [from old catalog]. 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. See the original page.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Onion + chickentop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  3. Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Chicken + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,258 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).

  5. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes (in the method)
Hold their shape as containers while their pulp blends into the filling and sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the filling and tops brown lightly in the oven.
Chicken
Provides the cooked meat that gives the filling its body and savoury flavour.
Soft bread crumbs
Absorb liquid from the pulp and bind the filling so it holds together.
Onion
Adds aromatic savoury base flavour when softened in butter.
Sugar
Balances the acidity of the tomatoes and rounds out the flavour.

The step that matters

Stirring the filling until smooth. The pulp and crumbs must be cooked together until thickened so the filling is firm enough to spoon into the tomatoes without running out during baking.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, chicken, sugar, bread, sauce):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Mustardfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, chicken, sugar, bread, sauce. 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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