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Raw Tomatoes

A salad of peeled and sliced tomatoes dressed with pepper, salt, sugar, mustard, olive oil, vinegar, and raw egg yolk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,539 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Raw Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Peel the tomatoes with a sharp knife.

  2. Slice the tomatoes and place them in a glass bowl.

Make the dressing

  1. In a separate bowl, mix together the pepper, salt, sugar, and mustard.

  2. Gradually beat in the olive oil, followed by the vinegar, a few drops at a time.

  3. Finally, add the raw egg yolk and mix well.

Combine and chill

  1. Pour the dressing over the tomatoes and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

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 + olivetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,539 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

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

  3. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Mustard + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

Tomatoes
Provide the main body, moisture and fresh acidity of the salad.
Raw egg yolk
Emulsifies the oil and vinegar, giving the dressing a thick, creamy texture.
Olive oil
Adds fat and richness, and helps form a stable emulsion with the yolk.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the oil and sweetens the tomato flavour by contrast.
Prepared mustard
Acts as an extra emulsifier and adds sharpness to hold the dressing together.

The step that matters

Adding the oil and vinegar slowly. Oil must be added gradually to the mustard and yolk so tiny droplets disperse evenly. Adding it too fast, or too much at once, lets the emulsion split, leaving a greasy, thin dressing instead of a smooth, cohesive one.

Swap the tomato

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

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

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