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Tomato Salad

A salad of sliced tomatoes dressed with a mustard vinaigrette and raw egg yolk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Tomato Salad

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 ↓

Tomato Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dressing

  1. Pare and slice the tomatoes, then place them in a salad bowl.

  2. In a separate bowl, mix the salt, pepper, sugar, and mustard into a paste with the oil.

  3. Gradually beat in the vinegar until well combined.

  4. Add the raw egg yolk and mix thoroughly.

Serve

  1. Pour the dressing over the tomatoes and set 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

Tomatoes
Provide the main body and juicy moisture of the salad.
Raw egg yolk
Emulsifies the oil and vinegar so the dressing stays smooth and creamy.
Made mustard
Helps bind the oil and vinegar into a stable emulsion and adds a sharp flavor.
Oil
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor and giving the dressing body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the fat and sweetness.

The step that matters

Adding the vinegar gradually. Beating vinegar into the oil-mustard paste slowly lets the mixture emulsify. Adding it all at once can cause the dressing to separate and turn greasy.

Swap the tomato

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

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

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