Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓
Stuffed Tomatoes
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
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Cut the tomatoes in half and remove the seeds.
Mix the parsley, thyme, eschalot, breadcrumbs, pepper, and salt.
Butter a flat dish and place the tomato halves in it.
Fill the tomatoes with the herb mixture.
Bake and serve
Cut 1 ounce of butter into small pieces and place on top of the filled tomatoes.
Pour a little stock or glaze around the tomatoes.
Bake for about 15 minutes.
Drain the juice from the seeds and mix it with ½ ounce of butter and a little flour to thicken.
Boil for 1 minute and pour over the tomatoes when serving.
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.
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Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,057 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,585 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Tomato + thymetop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,370 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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 in the oven, releasing juice that mixes with the butter and stock.
- Breadcrumbs
- Absorb moisture and give the herb filling body so it stays in the tomato halves.
- Butter
- Adds richness and helps the top of the filling and tomatoes brown in the oven.
- Stock or glaze
- Adds savoury depth and moisture to the dish and the thickened sauce.
- Eschalot
- Adds a mild aromatic onion flavour to the herb filling.
The step that matters
Thickening the seed juice sauce. Flour must be mixed smoothly with the butter and juice before boiling; otherwise it clumps and the sauce stays thin or grainy. Boiling briefly activates the starch so the sauce thickens.
Swap the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, thyme, pepper, butter):
- Carrotfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Parsnipfits better
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, thyme, pepper, 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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