Name: Tomato Sandwiches
Ingredients: 6 solid tomatoes; coarse sea salt; stiff mayonnaise; shredded lettuce; slices of olives; crisp lettuce leaves

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 ↓

Tomato Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Peel and slice the tomatoes into ½ inch thick slices.

Assemble and serve

Sprinkle a slice with coarse sea salt and spread with stiff mayonnaise.
Add some shredded lettuce on top, then place another slice of tomato.
Top with a teaspoon of mayonnaise and a slice of olive.
Serve on a crisp lettuce leaf.

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).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes: Provide the juicy, acidic body and main flavour of the sandwich.
Stiff mayonnaise: Adds fat and richness that balances the acidity of the tomato.
Shredded lettuce: Adds a crisp, fresh texture between the tomato slices.