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Tomatoes Au Gratin

Tomatoes au gratin are baked tomatoes filled with a savory mushroom, ham, and bacon mixture topped with breadcrumbs and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and chive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,150 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Tomatoes Au Gratin

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Cut off the tops of the tomatoes and scoop out the seeds without breaking the skin.

  2. In a pan, heat the oil or butter over medium heat.

  3. Add the mushrooms, parsley, chives or onion, ham, and bacon; fry for 4–5 minutes.

  4. Stir in the egg yolks and mix well.

Fill and cook

  1. Fill the tomatoes with the mixture and sprinkle breadcrumbs on top.

  2. Place a small piece of butter on each tomato.

  3. Fry the tomatoes quickly for 10 minutes and serve.

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. Parsley + chivetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  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 + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

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

  5. Mushroom + chivetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together553 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 a juicy base as it cooks.
Egg yolks
Bind the filling so it holds together and sets slightly when heated.
Mushrooms
Add moisture and savory depth to the filling as they release juice and brown.
Ham
Adds salty, savory flavour to the filling.
Bacon
Adds fat and smoky savory flavour that carries through the filling.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust on top of the filling as it cooks.

The step that matters

Fry the tomatoes quickly for 10 minutes. Tomatoes are mostly water, so long or slow cooking lets them collapse and release juice, making the filling soggy. A short, hot cook keeps the shells intact and lets the breadcrumb topping brown.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, mushroom, parsley, chive, ham, egg):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, mushroom, parsley, chive, ham, egg. 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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