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Tomato and Chive Salad

A salad of tomato halves topped with mayonnaise and chives, served on lettuce leaves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Chive and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 261 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Tomato and Chive Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomato

  1. Remove the skin from the tomato.

  2. Chill the tomato.

  3. Cut the tomato in half crosswise.

Assemble and serve

  1. Spread mayonnaise on the tomato halves.

  2. Sprinkle with finely chopped chives.

  3. Serve on a lettuce leaf.

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. Chive + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together261 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Tomato + lettucetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Tomato + chivetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together538 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomato
Provides juicy body and fresh acidity that balances the rich mayonnaise.
Mayonnaise
Adds fat and richness that coats the tomato and carries flavor.
Chives
Adds a mild onion aroma and a fresh, sharp note.
Lettuce
Provides a crisp base that holds the tomato and adds freshness.

The step that matters

Chill the tomato. Cold firms the tomato flesh, so it cuts cleanly into halves without collapsing or releasing excess juice. A firmer surface also holds the mayonnaise in place instead of letting it slide off.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chive, lettuce):

  1. Beetrootfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chive, lettuce. 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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