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Stuffed Tomatoes

Stuffed tomatoes filled with a mushroom, ham, and herb mixture, baked and topped with breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Stuffed Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Remove the tops from the tomatoes and scoop out the centers without breaking the skin.

  2. Season each tomato with salt and pepper.

Make the stuffing

  1. In a saucepan, melt 1 oz. of butter.

  2. Add the minced mushrooms, parsley, onion, ham, sweet herbs, salt, and pepper to the butter.

  3. Fry the mixture for 6 to 8 minutes.

  4. Fill each tomato with the mushroom mixture.

Bake and make the sauce

  1. Place the stuffed tomatoes in a baking tin with 1 oz. of butter.

  2. Cover the tin with buttered paper.

  3. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 15 minutes.

  4. In another saucepan, combine the scooped-out tomato centers, 2 or 3 mushrooms, 1 small onion, 1 tablespoon of minced ham, and 1 oz. of butter.

  5. Fry the mixture for 5 minutes.

  6. Add 1 teaspoon of flour, stock, salt, and pepper to the saucepan.

  7. Boil until reduced by half.

  8. Skim off the fat.

  9. Strain through a fine sieve.

  10. Reheat the sauce.

  11. Pour the sauce around the tomatoes.

  12. Sprinkle brown bread crumbs on top of each tomato.

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

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

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

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

  5. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 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
Hold the filling as the shell, softening as they bake and becoming tender.
Mushrooms
Provide moisture and savory depth to the stuffing and the sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the filling and sauce carry flavor.
Flour
Thickens the sauce as it cooks with the stock and reduced juices.
Brown bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned topping over the stuffed tomatoes.

The step that matters

Fry the mushroom mixture without letting it dry out or burn. Frying drives off water and softens the vegetables so the stuffing holds together and browns lightly. Too much heat can scorch the butter and onion, leaving a bitter taste in the filling and sauce.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, mushroom, ham, parsley, onion, pepper, flour. 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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