Name: To Bake Tomatoes Without Stuffing
Ingredients: 6 ripe tomatoes; 1 teaspoon salt; ½ teaspoon black pepper; 1 tablespoon butter

Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Bake Tomatoes Without Stuffing

Ingredients

6 ripe tomatoes
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon butter

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

Wash the tomatoes thoroughly.
Cut out a small piece from under each stem.

Season and bake

Fill the hollow with a little salt, black pepper, and a small pinch of butter.
Place the tomatoes in a 300°F (150°C) oven and bake until tender.

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.

Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Tomato + buttertop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,918 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes: Provide the main body and juice that softens and concentrates as they bake.
Butter: Adds fat and richness that carries flavour into the tomato flesh.