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Salad

Stuffed Tomato Salad

A salad of hollowed tomatoes filled with a mixture of onion, celery, hard‑boiled egg, and mayonnaise, served cold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,377 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Stuffed Tomato Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut off the top of each tomato and scoop out the seeds.

  2. Chop the onion and celery, and mix with the hard boiled egg and mayonnaise dressing.

  3. Fill the tomatoes with the mixture.

Assemble and serve

  1. Set each tomato in the center of sliced green pepper to create a scalloped ring.

  2. Place a slice of hard boiled egg on top.

  3. Serve cold.

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 + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  5. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 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

Firm ripe tomatoes
Form the hollow cups that hold the filling and give the salad its structure.
Hard boiled egg
Adds body and rich texture to the filling, and a sliced egg tops each tomato.
Mayonnaise dressing
Binds the chopped filling together and adds moisture and richness.
Green pepper
Provides a crisp, slightly bitter contrast and forms the scalloped ring under each tomato.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, celery, 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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