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Salad

Raw Tomatoes

A salad of sliced tomatoes dressed with a vinaigrette of oil, mustard, sugar, salt, pepper, egg yolk, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Raw Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Pare and slice the tomatoes with a sharp knife.

  2. Lay the sliced tomatoes in a glass dish.

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, mix the sugar, salt, pepper, and mustard into the oil.

  2. Beat in the egg yolk.

  3. Slowly add the vinegar, a few drops at a time, while mixing.

Assemble

  1. Pour the dressing over the tomatoes.

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. 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

Egg yolk
Emulsifies the oil and vinegar, binding the dressing into a smooth, creamy coating.
Oil
Provides fat and richness, carrying flavour and giving the dressing body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the dressing and balances the sweetness of the tomatoes.
Tomatoes
Supply the main body of the salad, with moisture and mild acidity.

The step that matters

Adding the vinegar slowly. Vinegar added a few drops at a time while mixing lets the egg yolk emulsify the oil, so the dressing stays smooth. Pouring it in quickly can make the dressing separate and look broken.

Swap the tomato

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

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

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