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Filled Tomatoes

A chilled tomato filled with a mixture of chopped hard‑boiled eggs, sardines, green pepper, caviar, dill pickle, and topped with mayonnaise.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and dill match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,630 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Filled Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Scoop out the insides of the tomatoes and chill them on ice.

  2. Chop the scooped tomato, hard boiled eggs, sardines, green pepper, caviar, and dill pickle finely.

  3. Mix the chopped ingredients together.

Assemble and serve

  1. Fill the chilled tomatoes with the mixture.

  2. Top with mayonnaise and serve cold.

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 + dilltop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,630 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Tomato + dilltop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together511 recipes

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

  4. Egg + caviartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together101 recipes

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

  5. Egg + dilltop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,008 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Hollowed out to hold the filling, and their moisture is kept cool by chilling.
Hard boiled eggs
Add body and a rich, firm texture to the chopped filling.
Sardines
Contribute salty, savory flavor and oily richness to the filling.
Caviar
Adds salty, briny flavor and a luxurious texture as a garnish-like element.
Mayonnaise
Adds fat and creaminess that moistens the filling and carries its flavors.

The step that matters

Chilling the tomatoes before filling. Cold tomato shells stay firm and hold their shape, while warm ones soften and release juice that thins the filling. Keeping the filling and shells cold keeps the dish neat and the texture clean.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, pepper, caviar, dill):

  1. Cucumberfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, pepper, caviar, dill. 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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