Name: Stuffed Tomatoes
Ingredients: 6 tomatoes; 3 ounces cooked small shallot; 1 teaspoon white meat (any kind), chopped; 2 tablespoons chopped parsley; bread crumbs

Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Stuffed Tomatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Remove the centers from the tomatoes and chop them into very small pieces.
In a bowl, mix the chopped tomato centers, shallot, white meat, parsley, and enough bread crumbs to bind the mixture.

Stuff and bake

Stuff the tomatoes with the mixture.
Place the stuffed tomatoes in a baking dish and bake for 15 minutes.

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.

Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,737 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Tomato + parsleytop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,398 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,013 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Tomato + shallottop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together583 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Shallot + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,245 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes: Serve as the edible shell that holds the filling while baking.
Bread crumbs: Absorb moisture and bind the filling so it holds together when stuffed.
Shallot: Adds a mild, savoury aromatic flavour to the filling.