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Salad

Raw Tomatoes

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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

  1. Pare and slice the tomatoes.

  2. Place them in a salad dish.

Make the dressing

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

  2. Gradually whisk in the vinegar until combined.

  3. 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. Mustard + peppertop 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

Tomatoes
Form the main body of the salad and supply moisture and juicy texture.
Oil
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour and softening the sharpness of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the sweetness.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that offsets the acidity of the vinegar.
Prepared mustard
Adds sharpness and helps the oil and vinegar emulsify into a smoother dressing.

The step that matters

Gradually whisk in the vinegar until combined. Adding vinegar slowly while whisking lets the oil and vinegar form a temporary emulsion, helped by the mustard, so the dressing stays smooth rather than separating into layers.

Swap the tomato

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

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

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