Name: Lettuce and Tomato
Ingredients: 1 lettuce leaf; 1 slice of tomato; ½ teaspoon mayonnaise dressing; 2 slices of bread

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 ↓

Lettuce and Tomato

Ingredients

1 lettuce leaf
1 slice of tomato
½ teaspoon mayonnaise dressing
2 slices of bread

Directions

Place the lettuce leaf and tomato slice on one slice of bread.
Spread the mayonnaise dressing on top.
Top with the second slice of bread.
Cut in half and serve.

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.

Lettuce + tomatotop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,655 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,013 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lettuce + breadtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together602 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Lettuce leaf: Adds a crisp, cool texture and fresh body to the sandwich.
Tomato: Adds moisture and a bright, slightly acidic flavour.
Mayonnaise dressing: Adds fat and creaminess that moistens the bread and binds the filling.