Skip to main content
Main

Baked Tomatoes with Chicken Stuffing

A baked dish of tomatoes filled with a chicken and breadcrumb mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Baked Tomatoes with Chicken Stuffing

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

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

  2. Remove the pulp from the tomatoes through a small opening at the top and drain in a sieve.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, combine the chopped chicken or veal, beaten egg, bread crumbs, a little butter, onion, sage, salt, and pepper.

  2. Moisten the mixture with some of the tomato juice.

Bake and serve

  1. Stuff the tomatoes with the mixture and place them in a greased baking dish.

  2. Bake for 30 minutes.

  3. Serve on a lettuce leaf if desired.

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 + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Hollowed shells that hold the filling and soften into a juicy, tender base while baking.
Chicken or veal
Provides the main protein bulk and savory meaty flavor of the filling.
Egg
Binds the filling so it holds its shape when sliced and served.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and add body, giving the filling a softer, less dense texture.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth as it softens within the filling.

Swap the sage

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Sagethe original

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

More stuffed tomatoes recipes

You might also like