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Stuffed Tomatoes

Tomatoes are hollowed, filled with a mixture of meat, breadcrumbs, onion, salt, pepper, and butter, then 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 ↓

Stuffed Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

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

  2. Remove the tops and centers from the tomatoes.

Stuff and tie

  1. In a bowl, mix the chopped meat, bread crumbs, onion, salt, pepper, and butter.

  2. Add the centers of the tomatoes to the mixture and fill the tomato shells.

  3. Replace the tops and tie them with string.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the stuffed tomatoes in a pan with hot drippings or butter.

  2. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes until browned and cooked through.

  3. Serve hot.

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 + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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
Firm, hollowed shells that hold the filling and soften as they bake.
Cold chopped meat
Provides the main savory filling that cooks through in the oven.
Bread crumbs
Absorb juices and help bind the filling so it holds its shape.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the tops and pan surface brown.

The step that matters

Bake until the meat is cooked through. Cold raw meat in a dense filling can stay underdone at the center while the tomato browns on the outside. Browning alone does not confirm the filling reached a safe internal temperature.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

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