Name: Tomato Salad
Ingredients: 6 good sized tomatoes, peeled and cut into small pieces; 2 onions, chopped fine; 2 hard boiled eggs, cut into blocks; ½ cup sour cream; ⅓ cup vinegar; 1 teaspoon sugar; ¼ teaspoon pepper; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt

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

Combine the tomatoes, onions, and hard boiled eggs in a bowl.
In a separate bowl, mix the sour cream, vinegar, sugar, pepper, and salt to make the dressing.

Assemble

Pour the dressing over the tomato, onion, and egg mixture and toss gently.

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.

Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,633 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,226 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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.
Sour cream: Creates a creamy, rich dressing that coats the vegetables and eggs.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the sweetness.
Hard boiled eggs: Add richness and a firm, mild texture to the salad.
Onions: Contribute sharp, aromatic flavor that cuts through the creamy dressing.

Swap the tomato

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

Capsicumfits better
Mustardfits better
Horseradishfits better
Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, egg, cream, vinegar, sugar, 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.