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Stuffed Tomatoes

A baked dish of tomatoes filled with a mixture of pulp, salt, pepper, butter, sugar, bread crumbs, and onion juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the tomatoes

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

  2. Arrange the tomatoes in a baking pan.

  3. Cut a thin slice from the smooth end of each tomato.

  4. Scoop out the pulp and juice without damaging the shape.

Fill and bake

  1. Mix the pulp and juice with the salt, pepper, butter, sugar, bread crumbs, and onion juice.

  2. Fill the tomatoes with the mixture and replace the tops.

  3. Bake for 30 minutes.

  4. Carefully lift the tomatoes onto a flat dish using a cake turner.

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

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

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

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

  3. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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 bakes.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the tomato pulp and juice, giving the filling body so it holds its shape.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a softer, more savoury filling texture.
Sugar
Balances the acidity of the tomatoes and encourages gentle browning.

The step that matters

Scoop out the pulp without damaging the shape. A torn or thinned tomato wall cannot hold the filling and may collapse or split in the oven, so the shell needs to stay intact.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Sweet potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, butter, sugar, bread. 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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