Name: Tomato Salad, Americaine
Ingredients: large tomatoes; soft American dairy cheese; mayonnaise

Why it works: Tomato and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and 2,896 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tomato Salad, Americaine

Ingredients

large tomatoes
soft American dairy cheese
mayonnaise

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

Peel the tomatoes.
Chill the tomatoes.
Slice the tomatoes rather thick.

Assemble

On each slice, place a matching slice of cheese.
Spread mayonnaise on the cheese slice.
Top with a second slice of tomato.
Add a small spoonful of mayonnaise on top.
Serve on individual plates.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Tomato + cheesetop 13% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together2,896 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

Large tomatoes: Provide the main body and fresh, juicy flavor of the salad.
Soft american dairy cheese: Adds creamy richness and a mild, milky flavor between the tomato slices.
Mayonnaise: Adds fat and richness, giving the salad a smooth, creamy texture.

“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.