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Stuffed Tomatoes

Stuffed tomatoes filled with a savory mixture of onion, ham, mushrooms, breadcrumbs, and spices, baked and served with fried bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓

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 tomatoes

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

  2. Wipe the tomatoes.

  3. Cut a small round from the end opposite the stalk.

  4. Scoop out the pulp.

  5. Turn the tomatoes upside down to drain.

Make the stuffing

  1. Melt the butter in a pan.

  2. Fry the onion and ham until thoroughly cooked.

  3. Stir in the mushrooms, bread crumbs, brown sauce or tomato pulp, cayenne, and salt until the mixture is soft.

Bake and serve

  1. Fill the tomatoes with the stuffing.

  2. Sprinkle with cheese and bread crumbs.

  3. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until soft.

  4. Serve on rounds of fried bread.

  5. Garnish with parsley.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,719 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

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

  5. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Serve as the hollow shell that holds the stuffing while it bakes.
Onion
Softens and sweetens as it fries, building the savoury base of the stuffing.
Button mushrooms
Add moisture and earthy flavour to the stuffing as they cook down.
White bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and help bind the stuffing into a soft, cohesive mixture.
Cheese
Melts and browns on top, adding richness and a golden finish.

The step that matters

Draining the tomatoes. Turning the scooped tomatoes upside down lets excess juice run out. Leftover liquid would thin the stuffing and make the tomato shells steam rather than bake, leaving them watery.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

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