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Salad

Tomato Salad

A salad of sliced tomatoes and lettuce dressed with mayonnaise or cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Tomato Salad

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 ↓

Tomato Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel and slice the tomatoes into ¼-inch thick slices.

  2. Chill the tomato slices in the refrigerator or on ice.

Assemble and serve

  1. Wash the lettuce and arrange it around the sides of a salad bowl.

  2. Place the chilled tomato slices in the center of the bowl.

  3. Pour the dressing over the tomatoes 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Lettuce + creamtop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,121 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  3. Tomato + creamtop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,034 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Provide the main body and juicy texture of the salad.
Broad-leaved lettuce
Forms a crisp green base around the tomatoes.
Mayonnaise or cream dressing
Adds richness and moisture that coats the tomato slices.

The step that matters

Chill the tomato slices. Chilling firms the tomato flesh and keeps the slices from releasing excess liquid, so the salad stays crisp and the dressing does not thin out.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Beetrootfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lettuce, cream. 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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