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Salad

Tomato and Pineapple Salad

A salad of peeled tomatoes filled with pineapple, nuts, and mayonnaise, served on lettuce or watercress.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and lettuce 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 and Pineapple Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Peel the tomatoes and remove a thin slice from the top of each.

  2. Take out the seeds and pulp, then refrigerate the tomatoes for 1 hour.

Fill and serve

  1. Just before serving, fill the tomatoes with ⅔ cup chopped pineapple and ⅓ cup nut meats.

  2. Mix the filling with mayonnaise and garnish with a little dressing and nuts.

  3. Serve on a bed of lettuce leaves or watercress.

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. Tomato + lettucetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,655 recipes

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

  2. Pineapple + lettucetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together271 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Tomato + pineappletop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together306 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + meattop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,438 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Meat + lettucetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together579 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
Hollowed shells that hold the filling and give the salad its fresh, juicy base.
Mayonnaise
Binds the filling and adds richness and a creamy texture.
Chopped pineapple
Adds sweetness and acidity that balance the tomato and mayonnaise.
Nut meats
Add crunch and a toasty, nutty flavor against the soft filling.

The step that matters

Chill the tomatoes for 1 hour after hollowing. Chilling firms the tomato walls so they hold their shape and stay cool and crisp once filled. Filling them too early can leave the shells soft and watery.

Swap the pineapple

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

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Cherryfits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, meat, 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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