Name: Scalloped Toma Toes with Me a T
Ingredients: 1 cup cold meat, chopped (mutton, lamb, veal, or chicken); 1 cup stale bread crumbs; 1 large tablespoon chopped parsley; Cayenne pepper, to taste; 1 grated onion; Salt, to taste; Pepper, to taste; Fresh or canned tomatoes; Butter

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 ↓

Scalloped Toma Toes with Me a T

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

Mince the cold meat finely.
Combine the minced meat with bread crumbs, parsley, onion, cayenne, salt, and pepper.
If using canned tomatoes, drain them thoroughly.

Assemble and bake

Line the sides of a baking dish with halved peeled tomatoes.
Fill the dish with the meat mixture.
Layer thick slices or halves of tomatoes on top.
Sprinkle with bread crumbs, pepper, and salt.
Dot the top with butter.
Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 45 to 60 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.

Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

Cold meat: Forms the bulk of the filling and gives the dish its savory body.
Stale bread crumbs: Absorb moisture and help bind the meat mixture while adding light texture.
Tomatoes: Provide moisture and acidity that soften during baking and form the sauce-like layers.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, and helps the topping brown in the oven.
Onion: Adds aroma and savory sweetness to the meat filling.

The step that matters

Drain canned tomatoes thoroughly. Excess liquid from canned tomatoes thins the dish and can make the bread crumb topping soggy instead of crisp.

Swap the onion

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

Capsicumfits better
Carrotfits better
Potatofits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, bread, parsley, pepper, tomato, 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.