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Tomatoes Au Gratin

Tomatoes stuffed with a breadcrumb, herb and egg mixture, topped with butter and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

Tomatoes Au Gratin

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Make a stuffing by mixing breadcrumbs, parsley, mint, eschalots, beaten egg, pepper, and salt.

  3. Make a small opening in each tomato and remove the seeds.

  4. Fill the tomatoes with the stuffing.

Bake

  1. Place the stuffed tomatoes in a baking dish.

  2. Top each tomato with a small piece of butter.

  3. Pour ½ cup of water into the baking dish.

  4. Bake the tomatoes for 15 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.

  1. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + minttop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,198 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  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. Mint + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,372 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Binds the breadcrumb stuffing so it holds together in the tomatoes.
Breadcrumbs
Soak up moisture and give the stuffing body and texture.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the tops brown and flavour the tomatoes.
Tomatoes
Form the edible shell and release juices that moisten the filling as they bake.

Swap the mint

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, parsley, egg, 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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