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Tomatoes, Stuffed

Tomatoes stuffed with a savory mixture of ham, breadcrumbs, cheese, mushrooms, and herbs, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Tomatoes, Stuffed

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. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Remove the stalks from the tomatoes and scoop out a little of the pulp.

  3. In a small saucepan, mix all ingredients except the brown sauce and browned breadcrumbs.

  4. Gradually add enough brown sauce to slightly moisten the mixture and season to taste.

Stuff and bake

  1. Fill the tomatoes with the mixture and sprinkle browned breadcrumbs on top.

  2. Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes.

  3. Serve the stuffed tomatoes on the croutons.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

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

  4. Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  5. Bread + hamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Form the edible case that holds the filling and softens as it bakes.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb moisture and add body to the filling, and brown on top in the oven.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavour and helps the filling feel tender.
Cheese
Adds savoury flavour and browns on the surface when baked.
Brown sauce
Moistens the mixture and adds savoury, slightly tangy depth.

The step that matters

Gradually add enough brown sauce to slightly moisten the mixture. Adding too much liquid at once makes the filling soggy and runny, so it can spill from the tomatoes and dilute the flavour. Adding it gradually lets you stop once the mixture is just moist enough to hold its shape.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, bread, ham, cheese, mushroom, onion, butter):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Celeryfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, bread, ham, cheese, mushroom, 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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