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Baked Tomatoes

Baked tomatoes stuffed with bread crumbs, onion, butter, salt, and pepper, baked until soft.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Baked 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

  1. Wash the tomatoes but do not peel them.

  2. Cut each tomato in half and remove the pulp and seeds.

  3. In a bowl, mix the bread crumbs, chopped onion, butter, salt, and pepper.

  4. Fill each tomato half with the mixture and press the halves together, tying them with thread.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the tomatoes in a pan with the remaining butter and water.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until soft.

  3. Remove the threads and serve on a hot dish.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Form the shell that holds the filling and softens into a moist, tender base when baked.
Bread crumbs
Absorb juices and butter to form a soft, cohesive stuffing that holds its shape.
Onion
Adds savory aroma and sweetness as it softens in the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the filling brown lightly and carrying flavour.

The step that matters

Bake until soft. Tomatoes must cook long enough for their walls to soften fully and the filling to heat through. Baking at a moderate heat, with water in the pan, keeps the tomatoes moist so they do not dry or scorch before they are tender.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, bread, butter, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, bread, butter, 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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