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Stuffed Tomatoes

Stuffed tomatoes filled with minced meat, bread crumbs, parsley, and tomato pulp, baked until heated.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Stuffed Tomatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. Remove the tops of the tomatoes and scoop out the seeds and pulp.

  3. In a bowl, mix the minced meat, bread crumbs, parsley, and the tomato pulp (after passing it through a sieve to remove seeds). If the mixture is too dry, add a little milk or stock.

Stuff and bake

  1. Fill each tomato with the mixture, pressing it in well.

  2. Grease a baking dish with butter and place the stuffed tomatoes in it.

  3. Dot the tops of the tomatoes with a little butter.

  4. Bake in the oven until heated through and serve very hot.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Hold the filling and soften as they bake, becoming moist and tender.
Minced meat
Provides the savoury body of the filling and sets as it heats through.
Bread crumbs
Absorb juices and moisture, helping the filling hold together rather than run.

The step that matters

Pressing the filling into each tomato. Loose filling can leave air gaps and may fall out during baking. Firm packing helps the stuffing hold its shape and heat evenly through the tomato.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Thymefits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Celeryfits about as well
  4. Cinnamonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, bread, tomato, meat, milk, 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.

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