Why it works: Tomato and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,592 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Tomato Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Slice the tomatoes into ½ inch thick slices and place them in a serving dish.
Make the dressing
In a bowl, mix the yolk of the hard‑boiled egg with lemon juice, nut butter or nut oil, sugar, and salt until smooth.
Heat the mixture until boiling, then slowly pour it over the well‑beaten egg while stirring continuously.
Pour the dressing over the sliced tomatoes and serve cold.
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.
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Tomato + lemontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,592 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Ripe tomatoes
- Provide the main body and fresh, juicy flavour of the salad.
- Egg yolk
- Emulsifies with the lemon and nut fat to give the dressing a smooth, thick body.
- Well-beaten egg
- Thickens the dressing when heated and stirred, giving it a creamy texture.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the sugar.
- Nut butter or nut oil
- Adds fat that carries flavour and gives the dressing a rich mouthfeel.
The step that matters
Heating the egg mixture. If the mixture is poured in too quickly or not stirred constantly, the egg proteins can scramble into lumps instead of thickening smoothly. Pouring slowly while stirring keeps the dressing silky.
Swap the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, lemon, butter, sugar):
- Asparagusfits better
- Leekfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, lemon, butter, sugar. 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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