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Salad

Raw Tomatoes

A salad of sliced raw tomatoes dressed with a vinaigrette of sugar, mustard, pepper, salt, oil, 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 the tomatoes.

  2. Slice the tomatoes.

  3. Place the sliced tomatoes in a salad dish.

Make the dressing

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

  2. Gradually add the salad oil and the egg yolk, beating until creamy.

  3. Slowly whip in the vinegar, a little at a time.

Assemble and serve

  1. Pour the dressing over the tomatoes.

  2. Chill the salad on ice until ready to 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.

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

Egg yolk
Emulsifies the oil and vinegar so the dressing stays creamy instead of separating.
Salad oil
Adds richness and carries flavour in the dressing, coating the tomatoes.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the dressing and balances the sugar.
Sugar
Softens the sharpness of the vinegar and mustard for a balanced sweetness.
Prepared mustard
Adds sharp flavour and helps stabilise the emulsified dressing.

The step that matters

Adding the vinegar slowly while whipping. Oil and vinegar are immiscible. Adding the vinegar a little at a time while whipping lets the egg yolk form a stable emulsion; pouring it in too fast can make the dressing separate and look watery.

Swap the tomato

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

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

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