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Stuffed Tomatoes

Tomatoes filled with a savory ham, mushroom, and herb mixture, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Stuffed Tomatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Cut a slice from the stalk end of each tomato and scoop out the seeds.

  2. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  3. Add the ham, mushrooms, shallots, parsley, sweet herbs, cayenne, and salt; cook gently until done.

  4. Let the mixture cool.

  5. Mix in the breadcrumbs and egg yolks.

Stuff and bake

  1. Stuff the tomatoes with the mixture.

  2. Sprinkle the stuffed tomatoes with breadcrumbs.

  3. Drizzle warm butter over the tomatoes.

  4. Place the tomatoes on a baking sheet.

  5. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 18 minutes until browned.

  6. Serve hot.

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. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Mushroom + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,719 recipes

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

  5. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 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 as they bake.
Ham
Adds savoury, salty flavour to the filling.
Mushrooms
Add moisture and earthy flavour to the filling as they cook down.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb moisture and bind the filling, and brown on top in the oven.
Egg yolks
Bind the cooled filling so it holds its shape when stuffed.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the topping brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before adding the egg yolks. Hot filling would scramble the raw egg yolks and thin the mixture, so it would not bind well or hold its shape when stuffed into the tomatoes.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, mushroom, shallot, parsley, pepper, butter, 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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