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Tomato Sandwiches

A sandwich made with light bread, sliced tomatoes, mayonnaise, and lettuce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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 ↓

Tomato Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Thinly slice the light bread.

  2. Thinly slice the large red tomatoes.

  3. Prepare the mayonnaise dressing.

Assemble

  1. On a slice of bread, place a lettuce leaf.

  2. Spread a spoonful of mayonnaise dressing on the lettuce.

  3. Cover with a slice of tomato, add more mayonnaise, and another lettuce leaf.

  4. Top with another slice of bread and trim any projecting edges of the lettuce.

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).

  2. Bread + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Bread + lettucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together602 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Light bread
Forms the sandwich structure that holds the filling together.
Large red tomatoes
Adds moisture and acidity that give the sandwich its juicy, fresh flavour.
Mayonnaise dressing
Adds fat and richness, and helps keep the bread from soaking up tomato juice.
Lettuce leaves
Adds crisp texture and a fresh, cool bite between the tomato and bread.

Swap the lettuce

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Eggplantfits better
  3. Cucumberfits better
  4. Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, tomato. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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