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Stuffed ‘tomatoes

A baked dish of tomatoes filled with a ham, breadcrumb, and herb mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

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.

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Peel the tomatoes and cut them in half.

  3. Remove the hard center from the tomatoes.

Fill

  1. Place the tomatoes in a fireproof dish with a little butter or salad oil.

  2. In a bowl, mix breadcrumbs with chopped ham, parsley, marjoram, thyme, minced onion, pepper, and coarse sea salt. Use breadcrumbs in a 2:1 ratio with ham.

  3. Strew the mixture over the tomatoes to cover them.

  4. Drizzle a little more butter or salad oil on top.

Bake

  1. Bake for a few minutes until golden and heated through.

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. Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  5. Marjoram + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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 and releases moisture as they cook.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb juices and bind the filling, giving it a soft yet set texture.
Chopped ham
Adds savory, salty flavor to the breadcrumb filling.
Butter or salad oil
Adds fat that carries flavor and helps the top brown.
Minced onion
Adds aromatic savory flavor to the filling.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, butter, ham, parsley, marjoram, thyme, pepper):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, butter, ham, parsley, marjoram, thyme, pepper. 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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