Why it works: Bread and butter 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 Tomatoes
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the tomatoes
Cut slices from the stem end of the tomatoes.
Remove the juice and pulp with a spoon.
Dredge the inside of the tomatoes with salt and pepper.
Make the filling
Melt 1 tablespoon of butter over medium heat in a frying pan.
Add the bread crumbs to the pan and stir until the bread crumbs are brown.
Fill the tomatoes with the browned crumbs.
Cover the openings with fresh crumbs and bits of butter.
Bake and make the sauce
Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 30 minutes.
Fifteen minutes before the tomatoes are done, melt ½ tablespoon of butter in a frying pan.
Add the flour and stir until brown and smooth.
Add the stock, tomato juice, and pulp to the pan and stir until it boils.
Season with salt, pepper, and onion juice.
Simmer for 10 minutes.
Pour the sauce around the tomatoes and serve.
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.
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,633 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,013 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Tomatoes
- Hold the filling and become tender and juicy as they bake.
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb butter and juices to form a browned, savory filling.
- Butter
- Adds richness and helps the crumbs brown in the pan.
- Flour
- Thickens the stock and tomato juice into a smooth sauce.
- Stock
- Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding savory body.
The step that matters
Browning the flour for the sauce. Flour must be stirred in butter until brown and smooth; if it is left raw or scorched, the sauce tastes pasty or bitter, and adding liquid too early causes lumps.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, bread, butter, flour, pepper):
- Capsicumfits better
- Eggplantfits better
- Okrafits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, bread, butter, flour, pepper. 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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