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Stuffed Tomatoes

A dish of tomatoes filled with a mixture of egg yolks, ham, tomato pulp, and cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stuffed Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Slice off the tops of the tomatoes and remove the pulp; drain the tomatoes.

Make the filling

  1. Mash the yolks of the hard boiled eggs with butter until smooth.

  2. Add vinegar, mustard, salt, and pepper to the egg mixture.

  3. Chop the egg whites and mix with the tomato pulp, cracker crumbs, and grated ham.

Stuff and serve

  1. Stuff the mixture into the prepared tomatoes.

  2. Chill the stuffed tomatoes on ice until ready to serve.

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

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

  2. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,482 recipes

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

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 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

Tomatoes
Hold the filling and provide the juicy, acidic base of the dish.
Hard boiled eggs
Supply rich yolk that binds with butter and whites that add body to the filling.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the mashed yolks become smooth and creamy.
Cracker crumbs
Absorb liquid from the tomato pulp and help give the filling a firmer texture.
Grated ham
Adds savory, salty flavor and chewy texture to the filling.

The step that matters

Drain the tomatoes well before stuffing. Tomatoes hold a lot of water. If they are not drained, that liquid thins the filling and makes it soggy, so the stuffing will not hold its shape.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, vinegar, mustard, pepper, ham):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, vinegar, mustard, pepper, ham. 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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