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Stuffed Tomatoes

Tomatoes filled with a ham, onion, butter, and breadcrumb mixture, baked until heated.

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

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.

Make the filling

  1. In a skillet, melt the butter and sauté the minced onion until soft.

  2. Add the chopped ham and cook until heated through.

  3. Stir in the breadcrumbs and season with salt and pepper.

Stuff and bake

  1. Cut a lid from the top of each tomato and scoop out most of the insides.

  2. Fill each tomato with the ham mixture and replace the lid.

  3. Place the tomatoes in a baking dish lined with buttered paper.

  4. Cover with another piece of buttered paper and bake at 400°F (200°C) until heated through.

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 + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Hollowed shells that hold the filling and soften into a juicy, tender base when baked.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb the butter and tomato juices, giving the filling body so it holds its shape.
Butter
Adds richness and carries the onion's flavor, helping the filling brown lightly.
Ham
Provides salty, savory meat flavor that contrasts with the sweet tomato.

The step that matters

Scoop out the tomatoes without piercing the walls. Thin, intact walls keep the filling inside while the tomato softens in the oven. Tearing the shell lets juices run out and leaves the filling soggy or dry.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, pepper, onion, 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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