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Stuffed Tomatoes

Tomatoes filled with a mixture of meat, rice, and spices, then baked until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and rice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,065 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Stuffed Tomatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Wash the tomatoes and cut a thin slice from the top.

  2. Scoop out the pulp and seeds.

Make the filling

  1. Mix the pulp and seeds with the remaining ingredients except the dry buttered crumbs.

  2. Heat the mixture.

Stuff and bake

  1. Fill the tomatoes with the heated mixture.

  2. Cover the tomatoes with the dry buttered crumbs.

  3. Place the stuffed tomatoes in a baking dish.

  4. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until well browned on top.

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. Tomato + ricetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

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

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

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

  4. Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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
Hollowed shells that hold the filling and soften as they bake.
Boiled rice
Adds bulk and a tender, absorbent texture to the filling.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the crumb topping brown.
Dry buttered crumbs
Form a crisp topping that browns in the oven.
Bread crumbs or cooked meat
Give the filling body and substance, binding it with the rice.

The step that matters

Bake until well browned on top. Tomatoes release water as they cook, so the filling can turn soggy if the oven is too cool. Baking at 400°F drives off moisture and browns the buttered crumbs.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, meat, rice, butter, 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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