Name: Baked Tomatoes
Ingredients: 1 ounce fine bread crumbs; 1 ounce butter, broken into small pieces; pepper or cayenne to taste; coarse sea salt to taste; small mushrooms (optional)

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 ↓

Baked Tomatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

1 ounce fine bread crumbs
1 ounce butter, broken into small pieces
pepper or cayenne to taste
coarse sea salt to taste
small mushrooms (optional)

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

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
If using, sauté small mushrooms in a little butter.
Mince and add the sautéed mushrooms to the tomato pulp before filling the tomatoes.

Fill and bake

In a bowl, mix the bread crumbs, butter, pepper, and salt.
Fill the tomatoes with the mixture.
Fill the tomatoes with the mixture again if mushrooms were added.
Bake the filled tomatoes for 10 minutes.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Bread + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,536 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,580 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,964 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread crumbs: Absorb melted butter and form a light, crisp topping as the tomatoes bake.
Butter: Adds richness and moisture, and helps the crumbs brown in the oven.
Tomatoes (in the method): Serve as the base that softens and holds the filling while baking.

“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.