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Buttered Eggs with Tomatoes

Baked eggs in tomato shells with butter, cream, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Buttered Eggs with 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

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

  2. Peel the tomatoes, cut off the tops, and remove the centers.

  3. In a bowl, beat the eggs with the cream, and season with salt and pepper.

Cook and bake

  1. Warm the butter in a saucepan over low heat.

  2. Pour in the egg mixture and stir quickly until it begins to set.

  3. Place the egg mixture into the tomato shells and set them in the oven for 5 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve the stuffed tomatoes on croutons of toast, sprinkle with parsley, and serve hot.

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

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

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

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

  4. Tomato + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

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

  5. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into a soft custard that fills the tomato shells and holds their shape.
Cream
Adds richness and a softer, silkier texture to the scrambled eggs.
Butter
Adds fat and flavor, and helps the eggs cook gently without sticking.
Tomatoes
Serve as edible shells that hold the eggs and add moisture and acidity.

The step that matters

Stir the eggs quickly as they begin to set. Eggs cooked over low heat coagulate unevenly if left still, and overcooking squeezes out liquid and turns them dry and rubbery. Stirring keeps the curds small and soft, so they stay creamy before baking finishes the set.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, cream, butter, pepper, parsley. 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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