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Sweet Breads in Tomatoes

A dish of sweetbreads stuffed into tomatoes, baked with butter, breadcrumbs, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Sweet Breads in 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 filling

  1. Soak and boil the sweetbreads until tender.

  2. Cut the tops off the tomatoes and scoop out the insides.

  3. Chop the tomato insides with onion, parsley, sweetbreads, cream, and fresh bread crumbs until very fine.

  4. Fry the mixture in butter and add salt and cayenne pepper.

Bake and serve

  1. Fill the tomatoes with the mixture, sprinkle with bread crumbs, and place a small piece of butter on each.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 15 minutes.

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. 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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

Sweetbreads
Provide the main meaty filling that gives the stuffing its body and rich flavor.
Tomatoes
Serve as the edible shell that holds the filling and softens and sweetens as it bakes.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and bind the chopped filling so it holds together, and brown on top.
Butter
Adds richness and fat for frying the filling and browning the topping.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the filling soft and smooth.

The step that matters

Chopping the filling very fine. A finely chopped mixture binds evenly and packs into the tomatoes without falling apart or leaving dry pockets, so each bite has a consistent texture.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, onion, butter, parsley, 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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