Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓
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 the tomatoes
Peel the tomatoes with a sharp knife.
Cut a piece from the top of each tomato.
Scoop out most of the pulp, leaving the walls intact.
Make the filling
Season the removed pulp with salt, pepper, sugar, onion juice, and salad oil.
Chop the seasoned pulp coarsely.
Return the seasoned pulp to the tomatoes.
Replace the tops on the tomatoes.
Bake and serve
Sprinkle the tomatoes with oil, paprika, and salt.
Arrange the tomatoes on a baking pan.
Bake covered at 350°F (175°C) for 20 minutes.
Uncover the tomatoes and bake for an additional 5 minutes.
Serve on buttered Graham bread toast.
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.
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,633 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,013 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Provide the main body and juice that soften and steam into the filling during baking.
- Salad oil
- Adds fat that carries flavor and helps the tomato filling feel richer and smoother.
- Sugar
- Balances the tomatoes' acidity and encourages light browning on the surface.
- Butter
- Adds richness and flavor to the Graham bread toast that the tomatoes are served on.
The step that matters
Scoop out the pulp without piercing the walls. The tomato walls act as the cups that hold the filling. A torn or punctured wall lets juice escape during baking, so the shell can collapse and the filling can dry out or spill.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, pepper, sugar, butter, bread):
- Capsicumfits better
- Potatofits better
- Sweet potatofits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, sugar, butter, bread. 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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