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Baked Stuffed Tomatoes

Baked stuffed tomatoes filled with ham, onion, breadcrumbs, and tomato pulp.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,633 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Baked Stuffed 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 the filling

  1. Cut a round top off each tomato and scoop out the pulp.

  2. Melt the butter in a frying pan.

  3. Chop the onion.

  4. Fry the onion until almost cooked but not brown.

  5. Add the ham and cook thoroughly.

  6. Mix in the tomato pulp and enough breadcrumbs to absorb the fat.

  7. Add seasoning.

Fill and bake

  1. Fill the tomatoes with the mixture, but do not pack too tightly.

  2. Sprinkle a few browned crumbs on top.

  3. Replace the lid of the tomatoes.

  4. Place the tomatoes in a buttered tin covered with buttered paper.

  5. Cook in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until heated through.

Serve

  1. Serve on small croutons of bread and garnish with parsley.

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 + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  2. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Onion + hamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,159 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Hold the filling and soften in the oven while their juices moisten the stuffing.
Ham or bacon
Adds savoury, salty flavour and fat that carries flavour through the filling.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb the melted butter and fat, giving the filling body so it holds together.
Butter
Carries the onion and ham flavour and keeps the filling rich and moist.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth as it softens gently in the fat.

The step that matters

Fry the onion until almost cooked but not brown. Browning the onion turns its sugars bitter and sharp, and it will keep cooking in the oven, so it should be left pale and only softened.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, ham, butter. 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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