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Scrambled Egg Salad

A salad of tomatoes filled with scrambled eggs, topped with mayonnaise, aspic, beets, gherkins, lettuce, and sliced tomatoes, seasoned with pepper, salt, oil, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and lettuce 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 ↓

Scrambled Egg Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Cut the tomatoes in half.

  2. Scoop out the pulp.

  3. Fill the hollows with well-seasoned scrambled eggs.

Dress and arrange

  1. Spread enough mayonnaise on each to cover the eggs.

  2. Top with a thick layer of aspic.

  3. Arrange the tomatoes in a circle on a cold dish.

  4. Garnish with beets and gherkins cut in fancy shapes.

  5. Fill the center with lettuce and sliced tomatoes, all cut in fine strips.

  6. Season with pepper, coarse sea salt, oil, and vinegar.

  7. Serve very cold.

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

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

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Lettuce + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,037 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  5. Lettuce + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Form the soft, creamy filling that sits inside the tomato halves.
Mayonnaise
Adds fat and moisture, coating the eggs and keeping the filling rich.
Aspic
Sets into a gelatin layer that holds the topping firm and cold.
Tomatoes
Serve as the edible shell and add moisture and acidity to the dish.

The step that matters

Serve very cold. Aspic is a gelatin that sets only when chilled, and it softens at room temperature. Keeping the dish cold holds its shape and keeps the mayonnaise and eggs firm and safe to eat.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Cucumberfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, lettuce, pepper, vinegar. 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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