Skip to main content
Main

Stuffed Tomatoes, Ameeican Style

A tomato dish stuffed with a savory mixture of onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, breadcrumbs, egg yolks, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Stuffed Tomatoes, Ameeican Style

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Prepare the tomatoes by scooping out the insides.

  2. In a saucepan, sauté the onions in butter until lightly browned.

  3. Add the chopped tomatoes and the scooped-out flesh.

  4. Cook until moisture is nearly reduced.

  5. Stir in the chopped mushrooms.

  6. Cover the saucepan until moisture is reduced.

  7. Mix in the bread crumbs, salt, and pepper. Cook for 10 minutes.

  8. Remove from heat.

  9. Stir in the egg yolks and parsley until well combined.

  10. Let the mixture cool.

Stuff and bake

  1. Stuff the tomatoes with the mixture.

  2. Sprinkle fresh bread crumbs on top of the stuffed tomatoes.

  3. Place a small piece of butter on each tomato.

  4. Arrange the tomatoes in a buttered baking pan.

  5. Bake at 350°F (175°C).

  6. Serve with tomato sauce.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,719 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 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 body of the filling and the shell that holds it while baking.
Egg yolks
Bind the filling and help it set firm when baked.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture from the filling and give it a light, thick texture.
Onions
Add savory sweetness and depth after being cooked in butter until lightly browned.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor to the onions and the baked tomatoes.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before stuffing. Adding egg yolks to a hot mixture can scramble them unevenly, so cooling first keeps the filling smooth and binds it gently when baked.

Swap the onion

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

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

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

More stuffed tomatoes recipes

Baked 22Shrimp 6Cheese 4with Mushrooms 4Celery 3Cucumber 3 See all 305 →

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipes