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Stuffed Tomatoes

Stuffed tomatoes filled with a mixture of tomato pulp, salt, pepper, batter, sugar, bread crumbs, and onion juice, baked until cooked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Stuffed Tomatoes

Ingredients

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 the tomatoes

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. Arrange the tomatoes in a baking pan.

  3. Cut a thin slice from the smooth end of each tomato.

  4. Scoop out the pulp and juice without damaging the shape.

Fill and bake

  1. Mix the pulp and juice with the salt, pepper, batter, sugar, and bread crumbs.

  2. Fill the tomatoes with the mixture and place the tops back on.

  3. Bake for 45 minutes.

Serve

  1. Gently lift the tomatoes onto a flat dish using a cake turner.

  2. Garnish with parsley and serve.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Bread + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,676 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Form the edible shell that holds the filling while it bakes and softens.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the tomato juice and pulp, giving the filling body so it holds its shape.
Batter
Adds binding to the filling so it holds together rather than running out.

The step that matters

Scoop out the pulp and juice without damaging the shape. Tomato walls are thin and soft, so tearing them makes the shell collapse and the filling leak during baking. Keeping the walls intact preserves the structure that holds the filling.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, sugar, 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.

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