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Salad

Tomato Salad with Gucumbers

A fresh salad of sliced tomatoes and cucumbers dressed with olive oil, vinegar, parsley, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,409 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tomato Salad with Gucumbers

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Peel and slice the tomatoes, then season them with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  2. Slice the cucumbers, sprinkle them with coarse sea salt, and set them aside for 20 minutes.

  3. Press out the water from the cucumbers.

Assemble and serve

  1. Combine the cucumbers with the tomatoes in a salad bowl.

  2. Add the chopped parsley, olive oil, and vinegar.

  3. Mix gently without breaking the tomatoes.

  4. Garnish with lettuce hearts.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Cucumber + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,409 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + olivetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together15,539 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Tomato + cucumbertop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,405 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + lettucetop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,483 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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 juice of the salad, with acidity and fresh flavor.
Cucumbers
Add crisp texture and watery freshness; salting and pressing removes excess moisture.
Olive oil
Adds fat and richness that carries flavor and coats the vegetables.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavors of the tomatoes and cucumbers.
Parsley
Adds fresh, herbal aroma and a green flavor note.

The step that matters

Press out the water from the cucumbers. Salting draws water out of the cucumbers. If that liquid is not pressed off before mixing, it pools in the bowl and dilutes the dressing, leaving the salad watery and bland.

Flavor stand-ins for the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, cucumber, pepper, olive, vinegar, lettuce):

  1. Tarragonbetter flavor fit
  2. Garlicbetter flavor fit
  3. Capersbetter flavor fit
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, cucumber, pepper, olive, vinegar, lettuce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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