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Stuffed Tomatoes

Tomatoes filled with a seasoned chicken or veal mixture, baked with butter and cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Wipe and remove thin slices from the stem end of the tomatoes.

  2. Take out the seeds and pulp, sprinkle inside with coarse sea salt, invert, and let stand for 30 minutes.

Make the filling

  1. In a pan, cook butter and onion for 5 minutes.

  2. Add chicken or veal, stale bread crumbs, tomato pulp, salt, and pepper; cook for 5 minutes.

  3. Stir in the beaten egg and cook for 1 minute.

Bake and serve

  1. Refill the tomatoes with the mixture, place in a buttered pan, and sprinkle with buttered cracker crumbs.

  2. Bake for 20 minutes at 400°F (200°C).

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 + chickentop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,031 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Form the edible shell that holds the filling while it bakes.
Egg
Binds the filling so it holds its shape when cooked.
Stale bread crumbs
Absorb liquid from the filling and give it body.
Chicken or veal
Adds protein and savory flavor to the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavor when cooking the onion and filling.

The step that matters

Drawing out the tomato liquid with salt. Salting the inside and letting the tomatoes stand draws out excess water. Without this, the filling can become watery and the tomato shells may collapse or leak during baking.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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