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Stuffed Tomatoes

Stuffed tomatoes filled with a savory mixture of minced meat, breadcrumbs, onion, parsley, and tomato pulp, baked until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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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 ↓

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. Cut a small slice off the stem end of each tomato and scoop out the insides.

  3. In a saucepan, melt the butter and add the chopped onion; cook until slightly colored.

Make and fill

  1. Add the minced meat, parsley, bread crumbs, tomato pulp, salt, pepper, and egg (if using). Stir until consistent.

  2. Dust the inside of the tomatoes with salt and pepper, then fill them with the stuffing, letting it rise ½ inch above the tomato.

  3. Top each stuffed tomato with a small piece of butter.

Bake and serve

  1. Cut bread into circles the size of the tomatoes, dip quickly in water, and place in a baking pan.

  2. Place a stuffed tomato on each piece of bread and bake for about 15 minutes, or until the stuffing is browned.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + breadtop 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 + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Hold the filling and soften as they bake, adding moisture and a mild acidity to the dish.
Minced meat
Provides the main protein and structure of the stuffing, which firms as it cooks.
Bread crumbs
Absorb juices and bind the stuffing so it holds its shape when baked.
Egg
Binds the stuffing together and helps it set when heated.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the stuffing and topping brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Cook the onion until slightly colored. Cooking the onion in butter until lightly colored builds sweetness and savory depth. Pale, raw onion would leave a sharp taste in the stuffing.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, butter, meat, parsley, bread, pepper, egg. 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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