Skip to main content
Main

Stuffed Tomatoes

Stuffed tomatoes filled with a savory mixture of onion, mushrooms, sausage, and herbs, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Stuffed Tomatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA very hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Wash and dry the tomatoes. Cut the tops off without detaching them.

  2. Scoop out the insides with a vegetable scoop and set aside.

  3. Season the insides with a pinch of salt and half a pinch of pepper.

Make the filling

  1. Chop the onion finely and cook it in a saucepan with ½ ounce of butter for 3 minutes without browning.

  2. Add the chopped mushrooms and sausage meat, season with salt and pepper, and cook for another 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.

  3. Incorporate the scooped-out tomato flesh, bread crumbs, and parsley. Mix well and cool for 2 minutes.

  4. Stuff the tomatoes with the mixture, close the tops, and season with half a pinch of salt and pepper.

  5. In a bowl, mix the shallot, garlic, egg yolks, chives, parsley, anchovies, and 1 ounce of butter.

  6. Cover the tops of the tomatoes with this stuffing, dividing it equally.

Bake and serve

  1. Sprinkle fresh bread crumbs on top and drizzle with clarified butter.

  2. Bake in a very hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 8 minutes.

  3. 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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,719 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

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

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

Red tomatoes
Hollowed shells that hold the filling and soften gently in the oven.
Sausage meat
Adds fat and savoury flavour to the stuffing as it cooks.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and bind the stuffing so it holds its shape.
Egg yolks
Enrich the stuffing and help bind it into a cohesive mixture.
Anchovies
Contribute a salty, savoury depth to the topping.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the topping brown lightly in the oven.

The step that matters

Cooking the onion without browning. Gentle cooking softens the onion and releases its sweetness. Browning would add bitter, harsh flavours that clash with the delicate filling.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, butter, mushroom, meat, bread, 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.

More stuffed tomatoes recipes

Baked 22Shrimp 6Cheese 4with Mushrooms 4Celery 3Cucumber 3 See all 305 →

You might also like

Meatless Tomato SoupMeatless Tomato Soup23 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipes