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Tomatoes, Stuffed

Tomatoes stuffed with bacon, mushrooms, herbs, shallots, and egg yolks, baked and served with brown sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Tomatoes, Stuffed

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Slice off the tops and green parts of the tomatoes and scoop out the insides.

  3. In a pan, combine bacon, mushrooms, parsley, thyme, shallots, pepper, and salt. Cook over low heat for 5 minutes.

  4. Stir in the beaten egg yolks to bind the mixture.

Stuff and bake

  1. Fill the tomatoes with the stuffing and place them in a sauté pan.

  2. Add salad oil to a depth of ¼ inch in the pan.

  3. Sprinkle bread crumbs over the tomatoes.

  4. Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes or until cooked through.

Serve

  1. Serve hot with brown sauce poured around the tomatoes.

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  3. Thyme + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  5. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Bind the stuffing together and set lightly when heated, holding the filling in place.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned topping over the tomatoes in the oven.
Bacon
Adds fat and savory flavor that carries through the stuffing.
Mushrooms
Add moisture and earthy flavor to the stuffing as they cook.
Shallots
Contribute mild sharp aroma that mellows as they cook.

The step that matters

Stir in the beaten egg yolks to bind the mixture. Egg yolks thicken when gently heated and set the stuffing. If the stuffing is too hot when they go in, the yolks can scramble in lumps, so the filling loses its smooth binding texture.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, parsley, thyme, shallot, pepper, egg, bread):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, parsley, thyme, shallot, pepper, egg, bread. 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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