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Tomatoes Stuffed with Hamburger Steak

Tomatoes stuffed with a mixture of hamburger steak, breadcrumbs, onion, salt, pepper, butter, and bacon, then steamed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Tomatoes Stuffed with Hamburger Steak

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Remove the tops and centers from the tomatoes using a sharp knife.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, mix the hamburger steak with brown bread crumbs, chopped onion, coarse sea salt, black pepper, and butter until well combined.

  2. Fill the tomatoes with the mixture, adding the centers back in.

Steam and serve

  1. Replace the tops on the tomatoes and bind them with a light string.

  2. Place the tomatoes in a kettle with strips of bacon and steam for 30 minutes.

  3. Carefully remove the strings and serve the tomatoes browned.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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

Hamburger steak
Forms the savory, meaty filling that cooks inside the tomatoes.
Browned bread crumbs
Absorb juices and help the filling hold together while it steams.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a softer, moister filling texture.
Strips of bacon
Adds smoky, salty fat to the steaming liquid and browns the tomatoes.
Chopped onion
Adds savory aroma and sweetness as it softens in the filling.

The step that matters

Steam for 30 minutes without overcooking. Tomatoes are mostly water and soften quickly under steam. Holding them at a gentle steam keeps their shape while the meat filling cooks through.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, bread, 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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