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Baked Tomatoes

Baked tomatoes filled with a mixture of tomato pulp, cracker crumbs, butter, pepper, sea salt, and onion.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Baked Tomatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Prepare the tomatoes by removing the tops and scooping out the pulp.

  2. Mix the pulp with an equal quantity of cracker crumbs.

  3. Season the mixture with butter, pepper, coarse sea salt, and chopped onion.

Bake

  1. Fill the tomato shells with the mixture and replace the tops.

  2. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 70 minutes.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Form the shell that holds the filling and softens into a juicy base as it bakes.
Cracker crumbs
Absorb the tomato pulp juices and bind the filling so it holds its shape.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the filling brown lightly on top in the oven.
Chopped onion
Contributes savory aroma and a mild sharpness that softens during baking.

The step that matters

Filling the shells. Packing the filling too loosely or overfilling can cause spilling or uneven cooking. The mixture should be moist enough to bind with the crumbs but not so wet that it leaks out of the tomato shells during baking.

Swap the tomato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, onion. 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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