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Baked Stuffed Tomatoes

Baked stuffed tomatoes filled with bread crumb mixture, topped with butter and baked.

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 Stuffed Tomatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the tomatoes

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

  2. Wipe the tomatoes clean and cut off the blossom end.

  3. Scoop out the pulp and mix it with an equal quantity of bread crumbs, chopped onion, seasoning, and the beaten egg.

Stuff and bake

  1. Fill the tomatoes with the mixture, place a piece of butter on top, and sprinkle with additional bread crumbs.

  2. Place the tomatoes in a buttered baking pan with hot water just covering the bottom.

  3. Baste with melted butter mixed with a little water.

  4. Bake for 15 to 30 minutes until tender.

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

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

  3. Tomato + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

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

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Hold the stuffing and soften into tender, juicy shells as they bake.
Egg
Binds the pulp and bread crumb filling so it holds its shape when baked.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the tomato juices and give the stuffing body and a light texture.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the topping brown while the tomatoes bake.

The step that matters

Baste with melted butter and water. Tomatoes are mostly water and can dry or scorch at the surface in a hot oven. Basting with butter and water keeps the top moist and promotes even browning while the hot water in the pan gently steams the shells until tender.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, bread, egg, butter, parsley. 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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