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Salad

Mayonnaise Tomato Salad

A chilled salad of sliced tomatoes topped with mayonnaise and lettuce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and lettuce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,655 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mayonnaise Tomato Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel the tomatoes and chill them until very cold.

  2. Prepare the mayonnaise and set aside until needed.

  3. Cut the tomatoes in halves or remove the stem ends if small.

Assemble and serve

  1. Make a nest with 2 or 3 lettuce leaves on a dish.

  2. Place a half tomato in each nest and top with a tablespoon of mayonnaise.

  3. Serve immediately.

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. 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 main body and juiciness of the salad, with their acidity balanced by the mayonnaise.
Mayonnaise
Adds fat and creaminess, giving richness that softens the tomato's acidity.
Lettuce
Forms a crisp, edible base that holds the tomato and adds fresh texture.

The step that matters

Chill the tomatoes until very cold. Cold firms the tomato flesh and slows enzyme activity and softening, so the halves stay firm and fresh-tasting. Warm tomatoes become soft and watery, and the mayonnaise can run on the plate.

“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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