Name: Stuffed Tomatoes
Ingredients: 6 ripe tomatoes; ½ cup macaroni, broken into 1/3 inch pieces; ½ cup grated cheese; Salt, to taste; Paprika, to taste; Buttered bread crumbs

Why it works: Cheese and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,130 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Stuffed Tomatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the tomatoes

Wipe and slice off the stem ends of the tomatoes.
Scoop out most of the pulp with a small spoon.
Sprinkle the insides with salt, invert, and let stand for 30 minutes.

Make the filling

Cook the macaroni in boiling salted water until soft.
Mix in the grated cheese and half of the tomato pulp, seasoning with salt and paprika.

Fill and bake

Fill the tomato cases with the mixture, sprinkle the tops with buttered bread crumbs.
Bake for 15 minutes at 400°F (200°C).

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.

Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,130 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,013 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Tomato + cheesetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,896 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: Hollow shells that hold the filling and soften slightly as they bake.
Macaroni: Provides bulk and a soft, starchy body to the filling.
Grated cheese: Melts into the filling, adding richness and binding the macaroni together.
Bread crumbs: Toast on top while baking, adding a golden, crisp finish.

“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.