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Stuffed Tomatoes

Tomatoes filled with a mixture of ham, breadcrumbs, parsley, herbs, pepper, and salt, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Stuffed Tomatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the tomatoes

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

  2. Cut a slice off the stalk end of the tomatoes and remove the pulp with a spoon, being careful not to make the walls too thin.

  3. Rub the pulp through a sieve to remove the seeds.

Fill and bake

  1. Mix the pulp with the bread crumbs, ham, parsley, herbs, pepper, and salt.

  2. Fill the tomatoes with the mixture and replace the tops.

  3. Sprinkle browned crumbs over the tomatoes.

  4. Place a small piece of butter on each.

  5. Bake on a greased baking sheet 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 + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

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

  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
Their pulp and shell hold the filling, and their moisture steams the filling as it bakes.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the tomato juices and give the filling body so it holds its shape.
Ham
Adds savory, salty flavor to the filling.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the crumb topping brown.

The step that matters

Keep the tomato walls thick. Thin walls can tear or collapse in the oven, letting the filling leak out. Enough shell keeps the tomato intact while it softens and steams.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, bread, parsley, 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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