Name: Stuffed Tomatoes
Ingredients: 8-10 large smooth round tomatoes; ¼ pound scraps of ham, bacon, or tongue, minced fine; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; 2 ounces butter; ½ ounce chopped parsley; 4 ounces grated cheese; 4 ounces bread crumbs; sweet oil for drizzling

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 Tomatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

8-10 large smooth round tomatoes
¼ pound scraps of ham, bacon, or tongue, minced fine
¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt
2 ounces butter
½ ounce chopped parsley
4 ounces grated cheese
4 ounces bread crumbs
sweet oil for drizzling

Directions

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

Prepare the filling

Cut off the tops from the tomatoes and scoop out the insides.
In a saucepan, combine the scooped insides, minced meat, salt, butter, parsley, cheese, and bread crumbs.
Stir the mixture over heat until scalding hot.

Stuff and bake

Fill the tomato skins with the mixture and fit the tops back on.
Dust with sifted bread crumbs and drizzle with sweet oil.
Brown in a 400°F (200°C) oven and serve on a hot dish with their own 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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,536 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Tomato + parsleytop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,398 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,962 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes: Hold the filling in shells that soften and release juices, forming the gravy.
Butter: Adds richness and moisture to the filling and helps the crumbs brown.
Cheese: Melts into the filling, adding savoury flavour and a binding richness.
Bread crumbs: Absorb liquid from the tomato pulp, thickening the filling and giving it body.
Minced ham, bacon, or tongue: Contributes savoury, meaty flavour to the filling.

The step that matters

Brown in a 400°F (200°C) oven. Tomatoes contain a lot of water. If the oven is too cool, they release juice slowly and stew rather than browning, leaving the topping pale and the filling soggy. A hot oven browns the crumbs and concentrates the juices into gravy.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, ham, butter, cheese, bread):

Thymefits better
Celeryfits about as well
Garlicfits about as well
Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, ham, butter, cheese, bread. 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.