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Salad

Tomatoes with Cream Dressing

A chilled tomato salad topped with a creamy egg yolk dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Tomatoes with Cream Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Remove the skins from the tomatoes and make a hollow at each stem end.

  2. Stand the tomatoes on ice until thoroughly chilled.

Make the dressing

  1. Mash the boiled egg yolks finely and work them smooth with the raw yolk.

  2. Add the salt, pepper, and melted butter, then fold in the whipped cream.

  3. Stir in the vinegar last.

Serve

  1. Drop a spoonful of the dressing into the hollow of each tomato and serve on a crisp leaf of lettuce.

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. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Pepper + lettucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,037 recipes

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

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Form a smooth, thick emulsion that gives the dressing its body and richness.
Melted butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the dressing taste smooth and full.
Thick cream
Adds moisture and a light, creamy texture to the dressing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances its richness.
Tomatoes
Provide the main body, moisture and fresh flavour of the salad.

The step that matters

Stir in the vinegar last. Acid can thin and curdle an egg and cream emulsion if added too early or too vigorously. Adding it last, gently, keeps the dressing smooth and thick.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Tomatothe original

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