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Baked Tomatoes

Baked tomatoes stuffed with seasoned breadcrumbs and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Baked Tomatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 °F (175 °C).

  2. Cut a round opening in the center of each tomato and scoop out the seeds and soft part with a teaspoon.

  3. Season the stale bread crumbs with minced onion, parsley, coarse sea salt, and black pepper.

  4. Fill the tomatoes with the seasoned bread crumbs.

Bake

  1. Butter a baking pan and place the tomatoes close together.

  2. Dot the tops of the tomatoes with a few bits of butter and add a little water to the bottom of the pan.

  3. Bake in the preheated oven.

  4. If the tomatoes start to scorch, cover them with buttered paper.

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. 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

Large firm tomatoes
Hold the filling and soften into tender, juicy shells as they bake.
Stale bread crumbs
Absorb juices and form a soft, savory filling that holds its shape.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the tops brown while coating the pan.

The step that matters

Covering the tops if they scorch. Tomato sugars and butter brown quickly in dry oven heat, so the tops can burn before the centers are tender. Covering with buttered paper slows browning while the interior keeps cooking.

Swap the onion

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

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

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

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