Name: Stuffed Tomatoes
Ingredients: 6 large ripe tomatoes; 1 small onion, chopped; 2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped; 2 tomatoes, chopped; several sprigs of parsley, chopped; salt and pepper to taste; 3 tablespoons fresh bread crumbs; 1 raw egg; butter (size of an egg)

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

Prepare the filling

Cut the tops off the tomatoes and remove the seeds and skin.
Chop the onion, hard-boiled eggs, tomatoes, and parsley separately.
Mix the chopped ingredients together and season with salt and pepper.
Combine the bread crumbs and raw egg, then stir into the mixture.

Stuff and cook

Stuff the tomatoes with the mixture and replace the tops.
Place the stuffed tomatoes in a bag with the butter.
Cook for 15 to 20 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.

Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

Raw egg: Binds the bread crumbs and filling together so they hold their shape.
Bread crumbs: Absorb moisture from the chopped filling and give it body.
Hard-boiled eggs: Add firm, dense texture to the filling.
Butter: Adds fat and richness to the tomatoes as they cook.

Swap the onion

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

Capsicumfits better
Carrotfits better
Potatofits better
Onionthe original

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