Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Stuffed 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
Remove the insides of the large tomatoes.
Mix the toast bread crumbs and grated cheese in equal parts.
Season the mixture with coarse sea salt, black pepper, and butter.
Stuff and bake
Stuff the tomatoes with the mixture.
Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 30 minutes.
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.
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,130 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Large tomatoes
- Form the shell that holds the filling and release moisture as they bake.
- Toast bread crumbs
- Absorb liquid from the filling and give it a light, crumbly texture.
- Grated cheese
- Adds richness and savory flavor, and browns on the surface in the oven.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and helps the top brown as it bakes.
Swap the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, cheese, pepper, butter):
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Tomatothe original
- Potatofits about as well
- Mustardfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, cheese, pepper, 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.
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