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Bread

Tomato Sandwich

A sandwich made with white bread, butter, lettuce, cooked dressing, and sliced tomato.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and tomato 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 Sandwich

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Butter one slice of white bread.

  2. Lay a lettuce leaf on the buttered bread.

  3. Spread cooked dressing on the lettuce.

  4. Place a thin, peeled slice of tomato on top.

  5. Add another slice of white bread on top to complete the sandwich.

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. Lettuce + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Bread + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Bread + lettucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together602 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Butter + tomatotop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

White bread
Provides the structure that holds the fillings together.
Butter
Forms a fat layer that helps slow moisture from soaking into the bread.
Lettuce
Adds a crisp, cool texture between the bread and the tomato.
Tomato
Adds juiciness and fresh acidity to the sandwich.

The step that matters

Slice the tomato thin and peel it. Tomato releases water that soaks into bread and makes it soggy. Thin, peeled slices release less liquid, and the buttered layer and lettuce help keep the bread firm.

Swap the lettuce

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, tomato. 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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