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Baked Tomatoes

Baked tomatoes stuffed with seasoned pulp, served on buttered Graham bread toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Baked 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 the tomatoes

  1. Peel the tomatoes with a sharp knife.

  2. Cut a piece from the top and scoop out most of the pulp, leaving the walls intact.

  3. Season the removed pulp with salt, pepper, sugar, onion juice, and salad oil, then chop it coarsely.

  4. Stuff the seasoned pulp back into the tomatoes and replace the tops.

  5. Sprinkle the tomatoes with oil, paprika, and salt.

Bake and serve

  1. Arrange the tomatoes on a baking pan and cover them.

  2. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes, then uncover and bake for an additional 5 minutes.

  3. Serve on buttered Graham bread toast.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 juicy filling that softens and becomes tender when baked.
Salad oil
Adds moisture and fat, helping the seasoned pulp and tomato surface stay rich rather than dry.
Sugar
Balances the acidity of the tomatoes and encourages gentle browning on the surface.
Graham bread
Serves as a sturdy base that soaks up the tomato juices when toasted and buttered.

The step that matters

Covering, then uncovering, the tomatoes. Baking covered first traps steam so the tomatoes cook through and soften. Uncovering for the last few minutes lets surface moisture evaporate so the top can brown lightly instead of turning watery.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Sweet potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

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