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Salad

Whole Tomatoes with Mayonnaise Dressing

A salad of whole tomatoes dressed with a mixture of vinegar, oil, pepper, salt, and mayonnaise.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and lettuce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,655 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Whole Tomatoes with Mayonnaise Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Skin the tomatoes.

  2. Marinate the tomatoes in a mixture of vinegar, oil, pepper, and salt.

  3. Chill the marinated tomatoes.

  4. Drain the tomatoes.

Serve

  1. Arrange the tomatoes on crisp lettuce leaves.

  2. Top each tomato with Mayonnaise Dressing.

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 + lettucetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,655 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Pepper + lettucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,037 recipes

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

  4. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Vinegar + lettucetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Firm ripe tomatoes
Provide the main body and fresh flavor of the salad.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that seasons the tomatoes and brightens the marinade.
Oil
Carries flavor in the marinade and adds a smooth, rich mouthfeel.
Mayonnaise dressing
Adds creamy richness and fat that contrasts with the acidic tomatoes.

The step that matters

Drain the tomatoes. Tomatoes release liquid after marinating and chilling. If they are not drained well, the juice thins the mayonnaise dressing and makes the lettuce soggy.

Swap the lettuce

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Cucumberfits better
  3. Mustardfits about as well
  4. Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, vinegar, pepper. 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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