Name: Stuffed Tomatoes
Ingredients: 6 tomatoes; 3 oz cooked white meat (any kind); 1 small shallot, chopped; 2 teaspoons chopped parsley; ¼ teaspoon pepper; ¼ teaspoon salt; 2 tablespoons bread crumbs; 1 egg; small piece of butter for each tomato

Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Stuffed Tomatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Remove the centers from the tomatoes.
Chop the cooked meat into very small pieces.

Stuff and bake

In a bowl, mix the meat with bread crumbs, parsley, shallot, pepper, salt, and egg.
Stuff the mixture into the hollowed tomatoes.
Place a small piece of butter on top of each tomato.
Bake 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.

Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,737 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Bread + buttertop 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 + 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: Serve as the hollow shell that holds the filling while it bakes.
Cooked white meat: Supplies the main body of the filling.
Egg: Binds the filling so it holds its shape when baked.
Bread crumbs: Absorb moisture and help give the filling a firmer, less runny texture.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, and helps the top brown and flavor the tomato.

Swap the tomato

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

Chivefits better
Leekfits better
Asparagusfits better
Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, shallot, parsley, pepper, bread, egg, 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.