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Baked Stuffed Tomatoes
1 cup soft bread crumbs 1/4 cup milk 1 tablespoon melted butter 1/4 teaspoon salt pepper 2 drops onion juice 6 tomatoes 2/3 cup grated cheese Moisten bread crumbs with milk, add onion juice and seasoning to melted butter, then add this with cheese to the crumbs. Remove centers from tomatoes, fill with the mixture. Bake in greased baking dish, in moderate 375 degrees oven till tomatoes are tender.
A simple, forgiving side dish; the only real variables are the water in the tomatoes and how long they hold their shape in the oven.
- Onion juiceTwo drops of onion juice was obtained by grating an onion and pressing the pulp, or squeezing a cut half against a reamer. A few grains of very finely grated onion, or the barest pinch of onion powder, stands in for it; a quarter teaspoon would be many times the trace the recipe asks for.
- Soft bread crumbsThese are fresh crumbs torn or grated from a day-old loaf, not the dry sandy crumbs sold in canisters. Dried crumbs will absorb the milk and stiffen; if that is all you have, use about two-thirds of a cup and a little extra milk.
- The cheese'Grated cheese' in an American recipe of this kind most likely means a firm yellow cheese, grated on a box grater. A sharp cheddar gives the flavour the small quantity of seasoning depends on.
- Preparing the tomatoesCut off the stem end, scoop out the seeds and core, then salt the cavities lightly and stand them upside down for ten minutes. Draining them is what keeps the filling from turning to soup.
- TimingNo time is given. Medium tomatoes take 25 to 30 minutes at 375F -- pull them when the skins wrinkle slightly and the tops have browned, before the sides collapse.
- Keeping their shapeSet them close together in the dish so they brace one another, or bake them in a muffin tin. Overbaked tomatoes split and flood the pan.
- YieldSix tomatoes serve six as a side dish, or three as a light supper course with bread.