Name: Tomato Nuts
Ingredients: ripe tomatoes; 1 cup mixed nuts; cream dressing; shrimp; mayonnaise; chopped cress; green pepper; onions

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 ↓

Tomato Nuts

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Scoop seeds out of ripe tomatoes.
Chop mixed nuts and mix with cream dressing.
Fill tomatoes with the nut mixture.

Assemble and serve

Top each tomato with one shrimp and a spoonful of mayonnaise.
Serve on a ring of chopped cress, green pepper, and onions.

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.

Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,633 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Mixed nuts + oniontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together26 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Shrimp + oniontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,437 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Ripe tomatoes: Serve as the hollow base that holds the filling.
Mixed nuts: Add crunch and a firm texture to the filling.
Cream dressing: Binds the chopped nuts together and adds moisture and richness.
Shrimp: Provide the main protein and a mild, savory flavor.
Mayonnaise: Adds fat and creaminess on top of the shrimp.

Swap the mixed nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, cream, shrimp, pepper, onion):

Beansfits better
Sesamefits better
Black-eyed peafits better
Mixed nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, cream, shrimp, pepper, onion. 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.