Name: Stuffed Tomato
Ingredients: 1 medium ripe tomato; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon butter; Pepper to taste; 1 cup stale bread crumbs; Onion juice to taste

Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓

Stuffed Tomato

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

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 the tomato

Wash the tomato and remove a thin slice from the stem end.
Scoop out the inside of the tomato and sprinkle the inside with salt.
Invert the tomato and let it stand for a short time.

Make the filling

Melt the butter in a pan, then add the bread crumbs and season with pepper and onion juice.
Mix some of the crumbs with the chopped tomato pulp and cook for five minutes.
Refill the tomato shell with the mixture and top with the remaining crumbs.

Bake

Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven 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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,633 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,013 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 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

Tomato: Forms the shell and, with its pulp, adds moisture and fresh tomato flavour to the filling.
Bread crumbs: Absorb the tomato juices and give the filling body and a light, set texture.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, helping the crumbs brown lightly in the pan.