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Salad

Tomato and Shrimp Salad

A salad of tomato shells filled with shrimp and mayonnaise, served on lettuce leaves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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 ↓

Tomato and Shrimp Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Peel the tomatoes and cut them in half.

  2. Scoop out the seeds, leaving only the shell.

Make the filling

  1. Drain the shrimp and chill them on ice until thoroughly cooled.

  2. Mix the shrimp with mayonnaise dressing.

  3. Fill the tomato shells with the shrimp mixture.

Serve

  1. Place each filled tomato on a crisp lettuce leaf and serve with additional 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 + shrimptop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,689 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Shrimp + lettucetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together430 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Large smooth tomatoes
Hollowed halves form the edible shell that holds the filling.
Shrimp
Provide the main protein and mild seafood flavour of the salad.
Mayonnaise dressing
Adds fat and creaminess that binds the shrimp together and adds moisture.
Crisp lettuce leaves
Offer a cool, crisp base that contrasts with the soft filling.

The step that matters

Chill the shrimp thoroughly before mixing. Warm shrimp can make mayonnaise dressing separate and turn thin and oily. Cold ingredients keep the dressing stable and the filling firm enough to hold its shape in the tomato shells.

Swap the lettuce

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Okrafits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, shrimp. 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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