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Salad

Stuffed Tomato Salad

A salad of chopped vegetables and mayonnaise stuffed into tomato shells served on lettuce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 cooks put them together in 1,409 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stuffed Tomato Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Peel the tomatoes carefully without breaking them.

  2. Cut a generous slice from the end of each tomato.

  3. Scoop out the center of the tomatoes with a spoon.

  4. Sprinkle a little salt inside the tomato shells.

  5. Turn the tomato shells upside down to drain.

Make the filling

  1. Chop the largest pieces of tomato that were scooped out.

  2. Add the chopped tomato to the prepared vegetables.

  3. Mix the vegetables with mayonnaise dressing.

Serve

  1. Fill the tomato shells just before serving.

  2. Top each filled tomato with a teaspoon of mayonnaise dressing.

  3. Serve the tomatoes on lettuce leaves.

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. Cucumber + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,409 recipes

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

  2. Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,539 recipes

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

  3. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  5. Cucumber + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Form the edible shell that holds the filling and adds juicy acidity.
Mayonnaise dressing
Binds the chopped vegetables and adds richness and creamy moisture.
Cucumber
Adds crisp texture and fresh moisture to the filling.
Celery
Adds crunch and a fresh, slightly savory bite to the filling.

The step that matters

Scoop out the tomatoes carefully. Cutting too deep or squeezing thin walls can tear the shell, so it cannot hold the filling. Keeping the walls intact gives a firm container, and draining the shells upside down removes excess juice so the filling does not become watery.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Eggplantfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, cucumber, olive, celery, parsley, 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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