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Tomata Dumplings, or Puddings

A dumpling filled with tomatoes, served with pepper, coarse sea salt, vinegar, mustard, or fried in butter or lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Tomata Dumplings, or Puddings

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Carefully peel the tomatoes without breaking the flesh or removing the seeds.

  2. Prepare your dumpling dough as you would for apple dumplings.

Assemble and steam

  1. Place the peeled tomatoes in the center of the dough and wrap them securely.

  2. Steam the dumplings until cooked through, allowing the flavors to meld.

Serve

  1. Serve with pepper, coarse sea salt, vinegar, and mustard, or enjoy them fried in butter or lard.

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. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,482 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
Provide the moist, tangy filling that cooks inside the dough.
Dough for dumplings
Encloses the tomatoes and forms the soft, steamed outer wrapper.
Butter
Adds richness and browning when the dumplings are fried.
Lard
Adds richness and browning when the dumplings are fried.

The step that matters

Wrap the tomatoes securely. Tomatoes release moisture as they heat, so a loose or thin wrap can split during steaming and let the filling leak into the water. A snug, sealed dough covering keeps the filling intact and moist.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, vinegar, mustard, butter, cream):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Radishfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, vinegar, mustard, butter, cream. 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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