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Tomatoes with Bacon

Tomatoes wrapped in bacon, baked until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

Tomatoes with Bacon

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

  1. Remove the stems from the tomatoes and wipe them clean.

  2. Dip each tomato in hot water for a few minutes, then carefully skin them.

  3. Cut the bacon into thin slices and pat each slice flat.

Wrap and bake

  1. Roll each slice of bacon around half a tomato, seasoning with salt, pepper, and a sprinkle of chopped parsley.

  2. Place the wrapped tomatoes in a greased paper bag, fold over the end, and secure with clips or large pins.

  3. Cook in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 15 minutes.

  4. Carefully break or slit the bag, transfer the contents to a hot dish, and serve.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  3. 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

Bacon
Wraps the tomato, rendering fat that flavours the tomato as it cooks.
Ripe firm tomatoes
Provide the juicy filling that softens and steams inside the bacon wrap.

The step that matters

Sealing the paper bag. If the bag is not sealed tightly, steam escapes and the tomatoes dry out instead of cooking gently in their own juices, and the bacon may not crisp evenly.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, parsley. 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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