Why it works: Tomato and lettuce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,655 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Whole Tomato Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the tomatoes
Select fine, ripe tomatoes of equal size.
Scald the tomatoes.
Skim and set them on ice until serving.
Assemble and serve
Line a salad dish with lettuce leaves.
Pile the tomatoes in the center to form a mound.
Serve on individual dishes with mayonnaise dressing.
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.
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Tomato + lettucetop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together1,655 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
- Tomatoes
- Form the main body of the salad; their ripeness supplies the juicy, sweet flavour.
- Lettuce leaves
- Provide a crisp, cool base that holds the tomato mound.
- Mayonnaise dressing
- Adds richness and fat that balances the acidity of the tomatoes.
The step that matters
Scald the tomatoes. Brief hot water loosens the skins so they peel cleanly. Leaving them too long softens the flesh and can cook the outer layer, so the tomatoes lose their firm shape.
“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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