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Stuffed Baked Tomatoes

Tomatoes hollowed and filled with a cabbage, onion, and breadcrumb mixture, then baked with butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and cabbage are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,081 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stuffed Baked Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Cut a thin slice from the blossom end of each tomato and scoop out the pulp without breaking the skin.

  2. In a bowl, mix the chopped cabbage, onion, bread crumbs, and tomato pulp.

  3. Season the mixture with salt, pepper, and sugar, then add the sweet milk and mix well.

Bake and serve

  1. Fill the tomato shells with the mixture and place them cut-end up in a baking dish.

  2. Add just enough water to the pan to prevent burning.

  3. Place a small piece of butter on each tomato.

  4. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for about 30 minutes.

  5. Add another bit of butter on each tomato before serving in the same dish.

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 + cabbagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Cabbage + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,001 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Provide the hollow shells that hold the filling and soften into juicy, tender cups as they bake.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and bind the cabbage and onion into a filling that holds its shape.
Sweet milk
Moistens the filling so it bakes tender rather than dry.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that helps the tops brown and gives a savory flavor.

The step that matters

Scooping the tomatoes without breaking the skin. The skin acts as the cup holding the filling; a torn shell lets juices escape and the filling leak into the pan, so the tomatoes lose shape and filling during baking.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, sugar, onion, milk, bread, 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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