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Salad

Shrimp and Tomato Salad

A salad of shrimp and tomatoes served on lettuce, topped with mayonnaise and garnished with nasturtiums.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,033 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Shrimp and Tomato Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Scoop out the center of the tomatoes and set the flesh aside.

  2. Cut the shrimp into small pieces.

  3. If using, chop the onion and add it to the shrimp.

  4. Bind the shrimp mixture together with a little mayonnaise.

Assemble and serve

  1. Fill the hollowed tomatoes with the shrimp mixture.

  2. Set the filled tomatoes on ice.

  3. Serve on lettuce leaves, garnished with nasturtiums and a spoonful of mayonnaise on top.

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. Lettuce + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,033 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

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

  3. Lettuce + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,655 recipes

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

  4. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Lettuce + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,562 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

Mayonnaise
Binds the shrimp mixture and adds moisture and richness to the filling.
Canned shrimp
Provides the main protein and savory filling for the tomatoes.
Firm tomatoes
Act as hollow edible cups that hold the filling and add acidity and moisture.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shrimp, lettuce, tomato, celery):

  1. Okrafits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, lettuce, tomato, 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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