Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 14,036 recipes mention both. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
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 the filling
Cut the tops off the tomatoes and remove the inside pulp.
In a bowl, mix the bread crumbs, chopped parsley, minced ham, butter, lemon juice, cayenne, and salt.
Add the beaten egg white and the tomato pulp to the mixture.
Stuff and bake
Stuff the tomatoes with the mixture and replace the tops.
Place the stuffed tomatoes in a well-buttered dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.
Serve
Serve each tomato on a slice of well-buttered toast, garnished with parsley.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together14,036 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together34,118 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Lemon + peppertop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together27,039 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Bread + buttertop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together27,145 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Bread + hamtop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together2,536 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Tomatoes
- Serve as the hollow shell that holds the filling and softens as it bakes.
- Egg white
- Binds the filling so it holds its shape when baked.
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb moisture and give the filling body and a soft texture.
- Ham
- Adds savoury, salty flavour and richness to the filling.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and helps the filling brown lightly.
The step that matters
Stuff and bake in a buttered dish. Packing the filling firmly and keeping the tomatoes upright in a buttered dish helps them hold their shape and cook evenly in the oven. Loose filling can spill out and dry at the edges.
Flavor stand-ins for the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, parsley, ham, butter, lemon, pepper, egg):
- Capsicumabout as good a flavor fit
- Asparagusabout as good a flavor fit
- Carrotabout as good a flavor fit
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, parsley, ham, butter, lemon, pepper, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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