Why it works: Beans and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,713 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Spanish Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Place cold dressed French beans or scarlet runners in the center of a bowl.
Pour good mayonnaise over the beans just before serving.
Slice the tomatoes and arrange them in a circle on top of the beans, overlapping each slice.
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.
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Beans + tomatotop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,713 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
- French beans or scarlet runners
- Form the bulk of the salad and provide its main texture and body.
- Mayonnaise
- Adds richness and fat, coating the beans and giving them a creamy dressing.
- Tomatoes
- Add acidity and juiciness, brightening the rich mayonnaise and beans.
The step that matters
Pour the mayonnaise just before serving. Mayonnaise is an emulsion that can thin, weep, or separate as it sits, and the beans can release liquid that dilutes it. Adding it at the last moment keeps the dressing thick and the salad looking fresh.
“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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