Name: Stuffed Tomatoes
Ingredients: 4 large tomatoes; 1 cup diced cold chicken; ½ cup chopped green peppers; ½ cup mayonnaise; Lettuce leaves for serving; Stuffed olives for garnish

Why it works: Tomato and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,539 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Stuffed Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Cut the tops off the tomatoes and scoop out the insides.

Make the filling

In a bowl, mix the tomato insides with diced chicken, chopped green peppers, and mayonnaise.
Fill the hollowed tomatoes with the mixture.

Serve

Serve on lettuce leaves and garnish with stuffed olives.

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 + olivetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,539 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Lettuce + olivetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,580 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Tomato + lettucetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,655 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + chickentop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,031 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: Act as the hollow edible shell that holds the filling and adds fresh juiciness.
Mayonnaise: Binds the chicken and pepper pieces together and adds richness and moisture to the filling.
Diced cold chicken: Provides the protein and bulk of the filling, held together by the mayonnaise.
Chopped green peppers: Adds crisp texture and a fresh, slightly bitter bite to the filling.