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Scalloped Tomatoes with Meat

A baked dish of tomatoes layered with seasoned meat, breadcrumbs, parsley, onion, cayenne, salt, pepper, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Scalloped Tomatoes with Meat

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Mince the cold meat finely.

  2. Combine the minced meat with bread crumbs, parsley, onion, cayenne, salt, and pepper.

  3. If using canned tomatoes, drain them thoroughly before use.

Assemble

  1. Line the sides of a baking dish with halved peeled tomatoes.

  2. Fill the dish with the meat mixture.

  3. Layer thick slices or halves of tomatoes on top.

  4. Sprinkle with bread crumbs, salt, and pepper.

  5. Dot the top with butter.

Bake

  1. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 45 to 60 minutes.

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

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

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

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

  3. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  4. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Form the moist, tangy outer layer that softens and bakes into the dish.
Cold meat
Provides the savory, substantial body of the filling.
Bread crumbs
Absorb juices and bind the meat mixture while adding light texture.
Butter
Adds fat that enriches the topping and helps it brown in the oven.

Swap the onion

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

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

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