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Ripe Tomato Dolma

A dish of ripe tomatoes stuffed with rice, roast, celery, dill or caraway, simmered and served with butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and dill match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 382 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Ripe Tomato Dolma

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Cut the tomatoes in half without peeling and remove the seeds and pulp.

  2. Mix the rice, chopped roast, pepper, salt, celery, and dill or caraway leaves.

Assemble and cook

  1. Fill the tomato halves with the mixture and replace the tops, securing with toothpicks.

  2. Stew the tomatoes in enough water to cover them for 30 to 45 minutes.

  3. Add the butter before serving.

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. Celery + dilltop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together382 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Hold the filling and soften as they stew, becoming tender and juicy.
Rice
Absorbs liquid and steam while cooking, becoming tender and filling the tomato halves.
Cold roast
Adds savory meat flavor and body to the rice filling.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and a fresh, mildly savory note to the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and a rounded flavor to the finished dish.

The step that matters

Stew the tomatoes in enough water to cover them. The tomatoes need enough liquid to cook gently and evenly for the full 30 to 45 minutes. Too little water can let them scorch or leave the rice unevenly cooked, while a gentle simmer keeps the tomato skins and shapes intact.

Swap the dill

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Dillthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, rice, pepper, celery, 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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