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Baking

Baked Tomatoes

A dish of sliced tomatoes seasoned, lightly fried, topped with breadcrumbs, parsley, and butter, then baked until heated.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

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

  1. Cut the ends off the tomatoes and slice them in half.

  2. Season with salt and pepper.

  3. Heat clarified butter in a frying pan and add the tomatoes.

  4. Fry the tomatoes lightly on both sides.

Assemble and bake

  1. Sprinkle with fresh bread crumbs and chopped parsley.

  2. Arrange in a baking dish, sprinkle more bread crumbs and parsley on top.

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

  4. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until heated through.

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

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

  4. Tomato + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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 juicy moisture that softens and warms through during baking.
Clarified butter
Fries the tomatoes lightly and adds richness and browning to their cut surfaces.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping that absorbs juices and adds texture.
Butter
Melts over the tomatoes during baking, adding richness and helping the topping brown.

The step that matters

Frying the tomatoes lightly on both sides. Tomatoes are mostly water. A light fry seals the cut surfaces and drives off some moisture, so they hold their shape in the dish instead of collapsing into a puddle during baking.

Swap the tomato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, butter, bread, 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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