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Salad

Tomatoes with Mayonnaise

A salad of sliced tomatoes dressed with a homemade mayonnaise.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tomatoes with Mayonnaise

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel and slice the raw tomatoes.

Make the mayonnaise

  1. In a bowl, combine the egg yolk, a little vinegar, salt, and pepper to form a smooth cream.

  2. Slowly mix in the oil and vinegar alternately, a few drops at a time, stirring gently and constantly until the desired amount of mayonnaise is achieved.

Store

  1. Keep the mayonnaise in a cool place until ready to use.

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 + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,482 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 yolk
Lecithin in the yolk emulsifies the oil and vinegar, holding them together as a smooth sauce.
Oil
Provides the fat that gives the mayonnaise its rich, thick body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and keeps the sauce bright.

The step that matters

Adding the oil. Oil must be added slowly, a few drops at a time, while stirring constantly. The yolk can only absorb small amounts of oil at once; adding it too fast breaks the emulsion, leaving the sauce oily and separated.

Swap the mustard

The recipe marks mustard as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, vinegar, egg, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Cucumberfits better
  3. Mustardthe original
  4. Spinachfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, vinegar, egg, pepper. 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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