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Stuffed Tomatoes
6 tomatoes 1 1/2 cups soft bread-crums 1/4 teaspoon pepper 2 tablespoons butter or savory fat 1 teaspoon salt The tomatoes should be very firm, smooth, and of equal size. Cut a piece from the stem end of each tomato, and remove the centers without breaking the walls. Make a stuffing of the centers of the tomatoes, crums, seasonings, and melted butter or savory fat, and mix well. Sprinkle each tomato well with salt and pepper and fill with the stuffing, packing it in quite solidly. Place a small piece of butter or fat on the top of each, arrange the tomatoes in a baking-dish and bake in a moderate oven until tender. Serve hot in the baking-dish.
A plain baked stuffed tomato from the 1920s, built entirely from the tomato's own pulp and soft bread. The original gives no oven temperature or time, so both are supplied below.
- Oven temperatureA moderate oven in this period is usually reckoned at about 350-375F. At that heat the tomatoes hold their shape while the filling sets.
- TimingExpect 25 to 35 minutes for medium tomatoes. They are done when the skins wrinkle slightly and a knife slips through the wall without resistance; past that point they collapse and flood the dish.
- Soft bread-crumbsThis means fresh bread torn or rubbed into crumbs, not the dry sandy crumbs sold in canisters. Dried crumbs absorb far more liquid and will make the stuffing pasty; use two or three slices of day-old white bread.
- Savory fatHousehold shorthand for rendered drippings kept from cooking -- bacon fat, beef or chicken fat. Any of these still works; butter is the simpler substitution.
- Handling the pulpThe scooped centers are wet. Chop them and let them drain briefly, or cook them down in the fat for a few minutes before mixing with the crumbs, or the filling will be soupy.
- Packing and supportThe recipe says to pack the filling in solidly; it may swell a little as it takes up liquid, so keep the stuffing roughly level with the rim. Choose a baking dish that holds the tomatoes touching one another so they brace each other upright.
- SeasoningThe single teaspoon of salt has to cover both jobs: the stuffing is made with 'seasonings', and the hollowed shells are sprinkled with salt and pepper before filling. Salt the shells lightly and pour off anything that pools before filling.
- YieldSix tomatoes, one apiece as a side dish with a roast or chop.