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Stuffed Tomatoes

Tomatoes filled with a mixture of onion, butter, breadcrumbs, meat, egg, and topped with buttered breadcrumbs, baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Stuffed Tomatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Wipe the tomatoes and cut a slice from the stem end.

  2. Scoop out the inside with a teaspoon, sprinkle the inside with salt, invert, and let stand for 15 minutes.

Make the filling

  1. Brown the onion slightly in butter.

  2. Add breadcrumbs, meat, tomato pulp, and seasonings; cook for 5 minutes.

  3. Add the egg, slightly beaten. Cook for 1 minute.

Fill and bake

  1. Refill the tomato shells.

  2. Cover with buttered breadcrumbs.

  3. Place in a greased pan or casserole.

  4. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 20 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. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Binds the filling so it holds together when cooked and refilled.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb moisture and give the filling body and texture.
Butter
Adds fat and flavor when browning the onion and coating the crumbs.
Tomatoes
Form the shells and add moisture and acidity to the dish.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, butter, veal, pepper, egg):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, butter, veal, pepper, egg. 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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