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Tomatoes Au Gratin

Tomatoes au gratin are tomatoes stuffed with breadcrumb and herb mixture, baked with butter and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and shallot 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 ↓

Tomatoes Au Gratin

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the stuffing

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Make a stuffing by mixing breadcrumbs, parsley, mint, eschalot, beaten egg, pepper, and salt.

  3. Make a small opening in each tomato and remove the seeds with a teaspoon.

  4. Fill the tomatoes with the stuffing.

Bake

  1. Place the stuffed tomatoes in a baking dish, add a small piece of butter on top of each, and pour water into the dish.

  2. Bake the tomatoes for 15 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.

  1. Parsley + shallottop 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. Parsley + minttop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,198 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Tomato + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Serve as the edible vessel, holding the stuffing while they soften in the oven.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb moisture and bind the stuffing, giving it body rather than a runny filling.
Egg
Binds the stuffing together so it holds its shape when baked.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the tops brown and the flavour carry.

The step that matters

Removing the tomato seeds. Cutting the opening carefully and scooping out the seeds leaves a sturdy cavity; tearing the flesh or removing too much can cause the tomato to collapse or leak juice while baking.

Swap the mint

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, parsley, shallot, egg, pepper, 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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