Name: Tomato Salad
Ingredients: Crisp lettuce leaves; Large red tomatoes; Coarse sea salt; Black pepper; French dressing or mayonnaise dressing

Why it works: Lettuce and tomato 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 Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Arrange a thick bed of crisp lettuce leaves on a large platter.
Slice large red tomatoes into thick slices and season with salt and pepper.
Layer the tomato slices on top of the lettuce and chill on ice.

Dress and serve

Just before serving, drizzle with French or mayonnaise dressing.
Serve by cutting through the lettuce to include both lettuce and tomato on each plate.

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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Lettuce + tomatotop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,655 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Lettuce + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,037 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

Red tomatoes: Provide the main juicy body and fresh, slightly acidic flavour of the salad.
Crisp lettuce leaves: Form a crunchy, cool base that holds the tomato slices.
French dressing or mayonnaise dressing: Adds fat and tang, coating the tomatoes and lettuce with flavour.