Name: Tomato Salad
Ingredients: 3 medium tomatoes; 2 ripe apples; 4 tablespoons olive oil; juice of 1 small lime; salt to taste

Why it works: Tomato and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 15,539 recipes mention both. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Tomato Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Peel and slice the tomatoes thinly.
Peel and slice the apples very thin.

Combine and dress

In a bowl, combine the tomatoes and apples.
Add the olive oil, lime juice, and salt.
Stir well to combine.

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 + olivetop 1% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together15,539 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Tomato + limetop 8% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together1,878 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Olive + limetop 8% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together3,621 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Apple + olivetop 13% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together1,565 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
Tomato + appletop 13% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together548 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 juicy moisture of the salad.
Apples: Add sweetness and a crisp texture that contrasts with the tomatoes.
Olive oil: Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour across the salad.
Lime juice: Adds acidity that brightens the flavours and balances the sweetness.

Flavor stand-ins for the apple

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

Avocadobetter flavor fit
Mangobetter flavor fit
Cherrybetter flavor fit
Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, olive, lime. 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.