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Stuffed Tomatoes

Stuffed tomatoes filled with a savory mixture of minced meat, breadcrumbs, and herbs, baked with butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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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 ↓

Stuffed Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Cut a small slice off the stem end of each tomato and scoop out the insides.

  3. In a saucepan, melt the butter and add the chopped onion; cook until slightly colored.

Make the stuffing

  1. Stir in the minced meat, parsley, bread crumbs, tomato pulp, salt, pepper, and egg (if using). Cook until consistent.

Fill and bake

  1. Dust the inside of the tomatoes with salt and pepper, then fill them with the stuffing, allowing it to rise half an inch above the tomato.

  2. Top each stuffed tomato with a small piece of butter.

  3. Cut the bread into circles the size of the tomatoes, dip quickly in water, and place in a baking pan.

  4. Place a stuffed tomato on each piece of bread and bake for about 15 minutes, or until the stuffing is browned.

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. Butter + breadtop 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 + parsleytop 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
Hold the stuffing as a shell and soften into a juicy base as they bake.
Minced meat
Provides the savory body of the stuffing and browns in the oven.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the tomato juices and bind the stuffing into a spoonable mass.
Egg
Binds the stuffing so it holds its shape when baked.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the stuffing and bread brown.

The step that matters

Cooking the stuffing until consistent. Cooking the mixture first drives off excess moisture from the tomato pulp and meat. Wet stuffing would make the tomatoes soggy and stop the top from browning properly.

Swap the onion

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

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

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