Skip to main content
Main

Scalloped to Ma Toes with Me a T

A baked dish of meat and tomatoes topped with breadcrumbs and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 to Ma Toes with Me a 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

  1. Mince the cold meat finely.

  2. Combine the meat with bread crumbs, parsley, onion, cayenne, black pepper, and salt.

  3. If using canned tomatoes, drain them thoroughly before use.

Assemble

  1. Line the sides of a baking dish with halved peeled tomatoes.

  2. Fill the dish with the meat mixture.

  3. Layer thick slices or halves of tomatoes on top.

  4. Sprinkle with bread crumbs, black pepper, and salt.

  5. Dot the top with butter.

Bake

  1. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 45 to 60 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.

  1. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  3. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  4. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  5. 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

Tomatoes
Form the shell and top layer, releasing juice that moistens the filling as it bakes.
Cold meat
Provides the main body and savory flavor of the filling.
Bread crumbs
Absorb juices and bind the meat mixture so it holds together when baked.
Butter
Adds fat that enriches flavor and encourages browning on the top layer.
Onion
Adds aromatic sharpness that blends into the meat filling.

The step that matters

Layer the tomatoes so they cover the filling. Tomatoes release water as they heat. Covering the filling helps keep the meat moist and lets the top brown evenly rather than drying out.

Swap the onion

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

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

You might also like

Meatless Tomato SoupMeatless Tomato Soup23 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipes