Name: Tomato Salad
Ingredients: 12 fresh tomatoes; 1 head broad-leaved lettuce; Mayonnaise or Cream dressing

Why it works: Tomato and lettuce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,655 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tomato Salad

Ingredients

12 fresh tomatoes
1 head broad-leaved lettuce
Mayonnaise or Cream dressing

Directions

Prepare

Peel and slice the tomatoes into ¼ inch thick slices.
Chill the tomato slices in the refrigerator or on ice.
Wash the lettuce and arrange it around the sides of a salad bowl.

Assemble and serve

Place the chilled tomato slices in the center of the bowl.
Pour the dressing over the tomatoes and serve.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Tomato + lettucetop 6% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together1,655 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Lettuce + creamtop 26% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together1,121 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Tomato + creamtop 32% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together2,034 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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.
Lettuce: Adds crisp leaves that frame the tomato slices.
Mayonnaise or cream dressing: Adds richness and moisture that coats the tomato slices.

Flavor stand-ins for the lettuce

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, cream):

Potatobetter flavor fit
Capsicumbetter flavor fit
Spinachbetter flavor fit
Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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.