Name: Baked Stuffed Tomatoes
Ingredients: medium ripe firm tomatoes; dry bread crumbs; celery, finely chopped; minced cooked meat; coarse sea salt; black pepper; butter; strained tomato pulp

Why it works: Tomato and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,377 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Baked Stuffed 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.

Cut an opening in the stem ends of the tomatoes and save the cut pieces.
Carefully scrape out the centers of the tomatoes and rub the pulp through a sieve.
In a bowl, mix the bread crumbs, chopped celery, minced meat, salt, pepper, and butter.
Moisten the mixture with the strained tomato pulp and fill the tomato shells.
Replace the tops and bake for 30 minutes at 350°F (175°C).

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.

Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,377 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,013 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

Swap the celery

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

Thymefits better
Parsleyfits about as well
Celerythe original
Garlicfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, bread, meat, pepper, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.