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 ↓
Tomato Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the tomatoes
Plunge the tomatoes into boiling water for a few seconds.
Remove the tomatoes and cut out a circular piece around the stem end of each.
Peel off the skin and set the tomatoes aside on ice to chill.
Assemble and serve
On a lettuce leaf, place each chilled tomato.
Fill each tomato cavity with chopped nuts and fruit.
Add mayonnaise dressing to each filled tomato.
Top each filled tomato with a candied cherry.
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 + lettucetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,655 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Lettuce + nutstop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together174 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
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Tomato + nutstop 22% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Tomatoes
- Form the salad's base; their flesh and cavity hold the filling.
- Mayonnaise dressing
- Adds richness and fat, moistening the chopped nut and fruit filling.
The step that matters
Plunge the tomatoes into boiling water for a few seconds. Brief blanching loosens the skin so it peels cleanly. Longer heating would soften the flesh and make the tomato collapse once cut and filled.
Swap the nuts
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, lettuce):
- Beansfits better
- Chickpeafits better
- Lentilsfits better
- Nutsthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, lettuce. 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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