Name: Tomato Farcies
Ingredients: 12 tomatoes; 2 tablespoons finely chopped cold meat; 2 tablespoons breadcrumbs; 1 tablespoon butter; 2 teaspoons chopped parsley; 2 teaspoons finely chopped onion; salt and pepper to taste; 2 tablespoons tomato pulp

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Tomato Farcies

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the filling

Cut the tops off the tomatoes and scoop out the centers.
Mix the cold meat with breadcrumbs, butter, parsley, onion, salt, pepper, and tomato pulp.

Fill and bake

Fill the tomatoes with the mixture and sprinkle breadcrumbs on top.
Place small pieces of butter on each filled tomato and cover with the tops.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 10 minutes.
Serve hot.

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.

Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,633 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + parsleytop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,398 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 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 shell that holds the filling and softens as it bakes.
Breadcrumbs: Absorb juices and add body to the filling, and brown lightly on top.
Butter: Adds richness and moisture, and helps the topping brown in the oven.
Cold meat: Provides the savory, chewy body of the filling.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, butter, parsley, onion, pepper):

Potatofits better
Carrotfits better
Shallotfits better
Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, butter, parsley, onion, 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.