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Stuffed Tomatoes

A baked dish of tomatoes filled with seasoned ground meat, breadcrumbs, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the tomatoes

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

  2. Wipe the tomatoes and cut off a slice from the stalk end.

  3. Carefully remove the pulp from inside the tomatoes with a small teaspoon, ensuring the walls are not too thin.

Stuff and bake

  1. In a bowl, mix the ground meat, bread crumbs, butter, shallot, parsley, stock, pepper, and salt.

  2. Stuff the mixture into the hollowed tomatoes.

  3. Top with croutons and browned bread crumbs.

  4. Place the stuffed tomatoes in a baking dish and bake for 20-25 minutes.

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. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Tomato + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 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

Ground meat
Forms the savoury filling that gives the stuffing its body and flavour.
Bread crumbs
Absorb juices and fat, helping the filling hold together and stay moist.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a softer, more tender filling texture.
Firm tomatoes
Act as edible cups that hold the filling and soften as they bake.

The step that matters

Keep the tomato walls intact when removing the pulp. Thin or torn walls can split during baking, letting the filling leak out and the shell collapse. Firm tomatoes with sturdy walls hold their shape under heat.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, bread, butter, shallot, parsley, 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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