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Stuffed Tomatoes

Tomatoes are hollowed, filled with a ham, onion, parsley, and breadcrumb mixture, then baked until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

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

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Make a hole in the center of each tomato and scoop out the insides.

  3. In a saucepan, combine the scooped tomato insides, ham, onion, parsley, and bread crumbs.

  4. Stew the mixture for 15 minutes.

  5. Season the mixture with salt, pepper, and butter.

Bake and serve

  1. Fill the tomato skins with the mixture and place them in a baking dish.

  2. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the tomatoes are tender.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Bread + hamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 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
Form the shell that holds the filling and softens into tender, juicy flesh as it bakes.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the tomato juices and bind the filling so it holds its shape.
Ham
Adds savory, salty flavor and meaty richness to the filling.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, more rounded mouthfeel to the filling.

The step that matters

Bake until the tomatoes are tender. Tomatoes need enough heat and time to soften fully and release their juices into the filling. Underbaked shells stay firm and watery, while overbaking can collapse them.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, bread, butter, pepper, ham, parsley. 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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