Name: Scalloped Toma Toes with Mea T
Ingredients: 1 cup cold meat, chopped; 1 cup stale bread crumbs; 2 tablespoons chopped parsley; ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper; ¼ grated onion; Salt to taste; Pepper to taste; Fresh or canned tomatoes; Butter

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Scalloped Toma Toes with Mea T

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare and assemble

Mince the cold meat finely.
Combine the minced meat with bread crumbs, parsley, onion, cayenne, salt, and pepper.
Line the sides of a baking dish with halved peeled tomatoes.
Fill the dish with the meat mixture.
Layer thick slices or halves of tomatoes on top.
Sprinkle with bread crumbs, salt, and pepper.
Dot the top with butter.

Bake

Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 45 to 60 minutes.
If using canned tomatoes, drain them thoroughly before use.

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.

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).
Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

Cold meat: Forms the bulk and savoury flavour of the filling.
Bread crumbs: Absorb juices and give the filling body so it holds together.
Tomatoes: Add moisture and acidity that soften and flavour the dish as it bakes.
Butter: Adds richness and helps the top brown as it bakes.

The step that matters

Drain canned tomatoes thoroughly. Excess liquid from canned tomatoes thins the filling and makes the crumb topping soggy, so draining well keeps the dish from becoming watery.

Swap the onion

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

Capsicumfits better
Carrotfits better
Potatofits better
Onionthe original

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

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Scalloped Toma Toes with Mea T