Name: Baked Tomatoes
Ingredients: 1 ounce fine breadcrumbs; 1 ounce butter, broken into small pieces; pepper or cayenne to taste; coarse sea salt to taste; brown gravy for serving; a few small mushrooms, optional

Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Baked Tomatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

1 ounce fine breadcrumbs
1 ounce butter, broken into small pieces
pepper or cayenne to taste
coarse sea salt to taste
brown gravy for serving
a few small mushrooms, optional

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.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, combine breadcrumbs, butter, pepper, and salt.
Fill the tomatoes with the mixture.
Bake the stuffed tomatoes for 10 minutes.
Serve with brown gravy.

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 + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,580 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).