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Stuffed Tomatoes

A tomato filled with bread crumbs, corn, onions, butter, pepper, and salt, baked until heated.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and corn match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,099 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Stuffed Tomatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Cut a round opening in the top of each tomato and scoop out the soft parts.

  2. Mix the scooped tomato flesh with stale bread crumbs, corn, chopped onions, butter, pepper, and coarse sea salt.

  3. Stuff the mixture back into the tomatoes carefully.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the stuffed tomatoes in a baking pan with a little butter.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until heated through, ensuring they do not burn or become dry.

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 + corntop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Large firm tomatoes
Hold their shape as the vessel and release juice that moistens the filling as it bakes.
Stale bread crumbs
Absorb the tomato juices and give the filling body so it stays soft rather than watery.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the filling taste rounded and the surface brown lightly.
Onions
Add savory sweetness and aroma as they soften in the filling.
Corn
Adds sweetness and a tender bite to the filling.

The step that matters

Bake until heated through without drying out. Tomatoes are mostly water, and overbaking drives off moisture and can scorch the filling, so checking early keeps the flesh juicy and the crumbs tender.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, bread, corn, butter, 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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