Name: Baked Tomatoes
Ingredients: 6 large tomatoes; ½ cup finely chopped cold boiled ham; 12 chopped mushrooms; 2 heaping tablespoons stale bread crumbs; 1 tablespoon chopped parsley; ½ teaspoon coarse sea salt; a dash of pepper; 1 tablespoon butter

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 ↓

Baked Tomatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the filling

Cut slices off the stem ends of the tomatoes and scoop out the seeds.
In a bowl, mix the ham, mushrooms, bread crumbs, parsley, salt, and pepper.
Fill the tomatoes with the mixture, heaping it in the center.

Bake and serve

Sprinkle bread crumbs over the tomatoes and place them in a baking pan.
Baste with melted butter and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 35 minutes.
Carefully remove and serve on a flat 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.

Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Tomato + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,719 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

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

Tomatoes: Serve as the hollow shell that holds the filling while baking, releasing moisture as they soften.
Cold boiled ham: Adds savory, meaty flavor and substance to the filling.
Mushrooms: Add earthy flavor and moisture to the filling as they cook.
Bread crumbs: Absorb juices from the filling and form a light, golden crust on top.
Butter: Adds richness and helps the topping brown in the oven.

Swap the tomato

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

Shallotfits better
Carrotfits about as well
Capsicumfits about as well
Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, mushroom, bread, parsley, 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.