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Tomatoes Stuffed with Sardines

Tomatoes stuffed with sardines, breadcrumbs, olives, butter, and spices, baked until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,539 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Tomatoes Stuffed with Sardines

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Scoop out the insides of the tomatoes.

  2. Let the juice drain from the pulp.

  3. Mix the pulp with the bread crumbs, sardines, melted butter, chopped olives, salt, and cayenne pepper.

Stuff and bake

  1. Stuff the tomatoes with the mixture.

  2. Cover them with the tops you removed.

  3. Place the stuffed tomatoes in a pan.

  4. Cover with another pan.

  5. Cook for 30 minutes in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).

  6. Uncover the tomatoes.

  7. Brown the tomatoes before serving.

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. Tomato + olivetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,539 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

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

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

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

  4. Bread + olivetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,091 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 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
Provide the hollow shell that holds the filling and release juice that must be drained first.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid from the pulp and help bind the filling so it holds its shape.
Sardines
Supply the main savory, rich flavour and a soft, moist texture to the filling.
Melted butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the surface brown in the oven.
Olives
Add salty, sharp flavour that balances the richness of the sardines and butter.

The step that matters

Let the juice drain from the pulp. Tomatoes release a lot of water when cooked. If the pulp stays wet, the crumbs turn soggy and the filling loses body, so draining first keeps the stuffing firm.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Tomatothe original
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Potatofits less well
  4. Spinachfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, olive, 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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