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Tomatoes Stuffed with Cucumber

Tomatoes are hollowed and filled with a cucumber and cream dressing mixture, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and cucumber are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,405 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tomatoes Stuffed with Cucumber

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Peel the tomatoes, cut off the stem ends, and scoop out the pulp to form cups.

  2. Turn the tomatoes upside down and set them in a cool place.

Make the filling

  1. Chop the solid pulp from the tomatoes and the cucumber.

  2. Stir the chopped pulp into the cream dressing.

  3. If available, add chopped pimento to the filling.

Fill and season

  1. Fill the tomatoes with the mixture and season with salt and pepper.

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. Tomato + cucumbertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Cucumber + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,991 recipes

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

  4. Cream + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Cucumber + creamtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together787 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

Cream and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Form the hollow cups that hold the filling and supply juicy, acidic flavor.
Cucumber
Adds crisp, watery texture that contrasts with the soft dressing.
Cream dressing
Binds the chopped pulp and cucumber into a creamy, moist filling.

The step that matters

Turn the tomatoes upside down and set them in a cool place. Tomato cups hold a lot of free juice. Inverting them lets excess liquid drain out so the filling does not get watery. A cool spot keeps the cups firm and slows the release of juice until serving.

Swap the cucumber

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, cream, pepper. 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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