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Salad

Pineapple Salad

A tomato pulp salad mixed with pineapple, apples, pecans, celery, and mayonnaise, served in tomato shells.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pineapple and apple match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 530 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Pineapple Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Remove the pulp from the tomatoes.

  2. Mix the pulp with mayonnaise and add the chopped pineapple, apples, pecans, and celery.

Assemble and serve

  1. Fill the tomato shells with the mixture.

  2. Serve on watercress or 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. Pineapple + appletop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together530 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Apple + celerytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,155 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  4. Tomato + pineappletop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together306 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + appletop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked 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
Firm tomato shells act as edible cups that hold the filling.
Mayonnaise
Binds the chopped filling together and adds richness and moisture.
Pineapple
Adds sweetness and a bright acidity that balances the mayonnaise.
Apples
Add crisp texture and a mild sweetness to the filling.
Celery
Adds crunch and a fresh, slightly savory note.
Pecan nuts
Add crunch and a toasty, nutty flavor.

The step that matters

Removing the pulp. The tomato walls must stay intact to hold the filling. Firm, ripe tomatoes are easier to scoop cleanly, because soft or thin-walled tomatoes tear and leak once filled.

Swap the nuts

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

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Chickpeafits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pineapple, apple, celery. 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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