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Baked Tomatoes

A dish of tomatoes stuffed with a breadcrumb and onion mixture, baked and served with butter gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,609 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Baked Tomatoes

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. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Cut out the stems from the tomatoes.

  3. In a bowl, mix the bread crumbs, chopped onion, pepper, salt, and ⅓ cup of butter. Add sweet marjoram and mix well.

  4. Fill the tomatoes with the dressing.

Bake and serve

  1. Melt some butter in a pan.

  2. Place the stuffed tomatoes in the pan.

  3. Bake for 30 minutes or until the tomatoes are soft but not broken.

  4. Serve on a hot dish with the pan gravy over them.

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 + marjoramtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Tomato + marjoramtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together299 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Large firm tomatoes
Hold the filling and soften in the oven while keeping their shape.
Bread crumbs
Absorb butter and juices to form a moist, binding stuffing.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, moistening the stuffing and browning the tops.
Small onion
Adds savory aroma and flavor to the stuffing as it cooks.
Sweet marjoram
Contributes a mild, herbal aroma that complements the tomatoes.

The step that matters

Bake until soft but not broken. Tomatoes contain a lot of water, and overbaking causes their cell walls to collapse, so they split and release juices. Checking for softness while the skins hold keeps them intact and the filling moist.

Swap the onion

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

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

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