Why it works: Roquefort cheese and cheese share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 21 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓
Cheese and Tomato Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the tomatoes
Peel and chill the tomatoes.
Scoop out a small portion of the pulp from each tomato.
Make the filling
Mix equal quantities of Roquefort and Neufchatel cheese and mash together.
Moisten the cheese mixture with mayonnaise dressing.
Assemble and serve
Fill the cavity of each tomato with the cheese mixture.
Serve the stuffed tomatoes on a bed of lettuce, with or without additional dressing.
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.
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Roquefort cheese + cheesetop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together21 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
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Tomato + lettucetop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together1,655 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + cheesetop 13% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together2,896 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Roquefort cheese + lettucetop 18% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together28 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
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Cheese + lettucetop 18% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together614 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
- Medium sized tomatoes
- Serve as the hollow shell that holds the cheese filling and gives the salad its structure.
- Roquefort cheese
- Adds a sharp, salty, pungent flavour that gives the filling its character.
- Neufchatel cheese
- Soft and creamy, it bulks out the filling and makes it spreadable when mashed.
- Mayonnaise dressing
- Adds fat and moisture so the mashed cheese becomes smooth and easy to spoon.
The step that matters
Moisten the cheese mixture with mayonnaise dressing. Too little dressing leaves the mashed cheese stiff and crumbly, while too much makes it loose and runny, so it may not hold its shape inside the tomato. Add it gradually and stop when the filling is soft and spreadable.
Flavor stand-ins for the lettuce
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, roquefort cheese, cheese):
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Lettucethe original
- Mustardabout as good a flavor fit
- Potatoabout as good a flavor fit
Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, roquefort cheese, cheese. 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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