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Stuffed Tomatoes

A baked dish of tomatoes filled with a seasoned meat and breadcrumb mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,445 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Stuffed Tomatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Scoop out the insides of the tomatoes.

  2. In a bowl, mix the ground meat, ground bell peppers, chopped onion, bread crumbs, chopped parsley, and enough tomato insides to moisten.

  3. Season the mixture with salt, pepper, and sage to taste.

Stuff and bake

  1. Fill the tomatoes with the mixture and place a small piece of butter in the center of each.

  2. Place the stuffed tomatoes in a baking pan and add a little water to prevent burning.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until cooked 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. Parsley + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,445 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

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

Tomatoes
Hold the filling and soften as they bake, releasing juices that moisten the stuffing.
Ground meat
Provides the main protein structure and savory richness of the filling.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the tomato juices and bind the filling so it holds its shape.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth as it softens in the filling.
Bell peppers
Contribute sweetness and fresh vegetable flavor to the meat mixture.
Butter
Adds fat that enriches the filling and helps the tops brown lightly.

The step that matters

Baking until cooked through. The ground meat must reach a safe internal temperature, but the tomatoes can turn mushy if overbaked. Checking the filling's doneness keeps both the meat and the tomato shape right.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, meat, pepper, bread, parsley, sage, 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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