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Stuffed Tomatoes

Stuffed tomatoes filled with minced meat and herbs, baked until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stuffed Tomatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Carefully scoop out the insides of the tomatoes without breaking the rinds.

  2. Finely mince the fresh underdone meat and mix it with salt, pepper, and sweet herbs.

  3. Combine the meat mixture with the scooped-out tomato insides to form a good consistency.

Bake and serve

  1. Stuff the tomatoes with the mixture.

  2. Place the stuffed tomatoes in a dish with a little lard.

  3. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until tender.

  4. Serve with the cooking juices and optionally pour a rich gravy over them.

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

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

  2. Tomato + meattop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,438 recipes

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

  3. Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,777 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Fine tomatoes
Hold the filling as edible shells that soften and become tender during baking.
Fresh underdone meat
Provides the main filling, adding savoury flavour and richness as it cooks through.
Lard
Adds fat that keeps the tomatoes and filling moist and helps the surfaces brown.

The step that matters

Baking until tender. The meat is described as underdone, so it must cook fully in the slow oven. Baking gently lets the filling and tomato soften evenly without drying out or breaking the rinds.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits about as well
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, 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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