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The Stuffing for Tomatoes

A tomato stuffed with a savory mixture of cooked mush, herbs, bacon, ham, and egg yolks, baked until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

The Stuffing for Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the stem end off the tomatoes and scoop out the seeds carefully with a teaspoon.

  2. Arrange the tomatoes in a frying pan with butter or sweet oil.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, mix the mush, parsley, shallots, bacon, ham, thyme, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

  2. Fry the mixture over medium heat for 5 minutes.

  3. Stir in the egg yolks until smooth.

Stuff and bake

  1. Fill the tomato shells with the mixture and sprinkle with bread crumbs.

  2. Place the pan over medium heat and cook for 10 minutes, using a salamander or broiler to brown the tops.

  3. Serve 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 + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Shallot + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  5. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 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

Eggs
Yolks bind the filling and set it into a cohesive, sliceable mixture when heated.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping that browns under the salamander or broiler.
Bacon
Adds fat and savory flavor that carries through the filling.
Ham
Contributes savory, salty flavor and meaty texture to the filling.
Cooked mush
Provides the bulk of the filling and absorbs moisture from the other ingredients.

The step that matters

Stir in the egg yolks until smooth. Egg yolks thicken and set when heated, so the filling must be smooth and evenly mixed before stuffing; overheating or uneven mixing can make it curdle or cook unevenly.

Swap the nutmeg

The recipe marks nutmeg as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, butter, parsley, shallot, ham, thyme, pepper):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, butter, parsley, shallot, ham, thyme, pepper. 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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