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Stuffed Baked Tomatoes

A tomato hollowed and filled with a butter, breadcrumb, and sugar mixture, then baked until soft.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 98,233 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Stuffed Baked Tomatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Wash the tomato and cut a thick slice from the stem end.

  2. Scoop out the pulp.

Fill and bake

  1. Mix the pulp with butter, breadcrumbs, and sugar.

  2. Fill the cavity of the tomato with the mixture.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until soft.

  4. Top the tomato with buttered breadcrumbs, using equal amounts of butter and breadcrumbs.

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. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Tomato + buttertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Tomato + sugartop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,667 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomato
Forms the shell and the pulp that becomes the filling, supplying moisture as it bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the topping brown in the oven.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb tomato juices to give the filling body and form a crisp topping.
Sugar
Adds mild sweetness that balances the tomato's acidity.

The step that matters

Bake until soft. Heat softens the tomato walls and cooks the filling through. Overbaking can collapse the shell and drive off too much juice, so check for tenderness rather than relying only on time.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar):

  1. Sweet potatofits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar. 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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