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Tomato Basket with Peas

A tomato hollowed and filled with cold cooked peas and boiled dressing, optionally topped with walnut pieces.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and peas are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,058 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tomato Basket with Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the basket

  1. Select a small tomato with a piece of stem left on.

  2. Cut the tomato in the shape of a basket.

  3. Scoop out the pulp and seeds using a spoon.

Fill and serve

  1. Fill the basket with cold cooked peas mixed with boiled dressing.

  2. Add a few English walnut meats if desired.

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 + peastop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,058 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + walnuttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together498 recipes

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

  3. Walnut + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,035 recipes

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

  4. Peas + walnuttop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together170 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  5. Tomato + meattop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,438 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomato
Serves as the edible basket that holds the filling.
Cold cooked peas
Provide the bulk and mild sweetness of the filling.
Boiled dressing
Binds the peas and adds moisture and flavor to the filling.

The step that matters

Cut the tomato in the shape of a basket. Cutting too deep can puncture the walls or split the tomato, so the basket will not hold the filling. Keep a rim of flesh intact and remove only the pulp and seeds.

Swap the walnut

The recipe marks walnut as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, peas, meat):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Lima beansfits better
  3. Chickpeafits better
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, peas, meat. 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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