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Fish and Tomato Salad

A salad of flounder fillets, tomatoes, lettuce, and dressing, baked and served with lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 27,047 recipes mention both. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Fish and Tomato Salad

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a good oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the fish

  1. Fillet the fish and cut the fillet into three pieces.

  2. Sprinkle the fish with pepper and salt.

Cook the fish

  1. Place the fish on a buttered pan and pour lemon juice over it.

  2. Cover with buttered paper and cook for 7 minutes in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

  3. Allow the fish to cool.

Assemble and serve

  1. Shred the lettuce and place it on a dish.

  2. Arrange the fish and sliced tomatoes in a circle, overlapping them.

  3. Pour the salad dressing in the center.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Tomato + lettucetop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,655 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17,923 recipes

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

  4. Lettuce + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together4,037 recipes

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

  5. Lettuce + lemontop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,559 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Flounder
Forms the main protein, cooking to a delicate, flaky texture when baked gently.
Tomatoes
Add moisture, acidity and fresh flavour to the salad.
Salad dressing
Adds moisture and richness, bringing the salad components together.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the fish.

The step that matters

Covering the fish while it bakes. Covering the fish with buttered paper traps steam so it cooks gently and stays moist. Uncovered, the thin pieces can dry out quickly in a hot oven.

Flavor stand-ins for the lettuce

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, lemon, pepper):

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Okrabetter flavor fit
  3. Spinachbetter flavor fit
  4. Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, lemon, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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