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Baked Tomatos, Stuffed with Macaroni and Cheese

Baked tomatoes stuffed with macaroni, butter, cheese, paprika, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Baked Tomatos, Stuffed with Macaroni and Cheese

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Cook the macaroni in boiling water until soft.

  2. Cut a small opening in the top of each tomato and remove the seeds with a teaspoon, keeping as much pulp as possible.

Fill and bake

  1. Fill the tomatoes with macaroni, then add butter, salt, and pepper.

  2. Top with cheese.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30 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. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  3. Walnut + peppertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,039 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + walnuttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together498 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + cheesetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,896 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 and become tender and juicy as they bake, forming the dish's container.
Macaroni
Provides the bulk of the filling, soaking up juices and setting into a soft, starchy mass.
Cheese
Melts over the top and browns in the oven, adding savoury flavour and a golden crust.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the macaroni and helps it brown lightly.

The step that matters

Removing the seeds while keeping the pulp. Scooping too deeply or tearing the walls can make the tomato shells thin or leaky. Keeping the pulp preserves flavour and moisture, and the shell must stay intact to hold the filling during baking.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Chickpeafits about as well
  3. Walnutthe original
  4. Lima beansfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, cheese, butter, pepper. 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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