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Salad

Tomato Salad

A tomato salad dressed with a paste of egg yolks, mustard, cayenne, salt, sugar, oil, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Tomato Salad

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 Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Peel and slice the tomatoes.

  2. Place them in a salad dish.

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, rub together the egg yolks, mustard, cayenne, salt, sugar, and salad oil to form a paste.

  2. Beat in the raw egg using a whisk.

  3. Slowly add the oil.

  4. Stir in a lump of ice and mix rapidly for half a minute.

Serve

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

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

  2. Mustard + vinegartop 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. Pepper + vinegartop 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

Hard-boiled egg yolks
Pounded into a paste, they form the base that emulsifies the oil into a smooth dressing.
Raw egg
Beaten in to add body and help the dressing hold together as it thickens.
Salad oil
Forms the fat phase of the dressing, giving it richness and a silky texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the oil and yolks.
Tomatoes
Provide the main body and fresh, slightly acidic flavour of the salad.

The step that matters

Adding the oil slowly. Oil must be added gradually to the yolk paste so it emulsifies into a stable dressing; adding it too fast causes it to separate and turn greasy.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, pepper, sugar, mustard, vinegar):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

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