Name: Tomato Savoury
Ingredients: 12 tomatoes; 2 tablespoons butter; 1 ounce breadcrumbs; 1 chopped onion; 2 chopped mushrooms; 1 teaspoon minced parsley; Salt to taste; Pepper to taste

Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Tomato Savoury

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

Slice a round piece off the top of each tomato and scoop out the inside.
Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a saucepan, then add the tomato pulp, ½ ounce of breadcrumbs, onion, mushrooms, parsley, salt, and pepper. Stir the mixture.

Fill and bake

Fill the tomatoes with the mixture.
Top each filled tomato with a small piece of butter and some breadcrumbs.
Arrange the tomatoes on a hot dish and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 15 minutes.
Serve on small squares of buttered toast.

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.

Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Tomato + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,719 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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 edible shell that holds the filling and softens as it bakes.
Butter: Adds richness and moisture, and helps the top brown lightly in the oven.
Breadcrumbs: Absorb juices from the pulp and mushrooms, giving the filling body and a lightly crisp top.
Mushrooms: Add savoury depth and moisture to the filling.

Swap the onion

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

Capsicumfits better
Carrotfits better
Potatofits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, butter, mushroom, 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.