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 ↓
Tomato Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Peel the tomatoes and remove the pulp.
Cut the cucumbers, walnuts, and olives into small pieces.
Mix the small pieces with the tomato pulp and mayonnaise dressing.
Fill the tomatoes with the mixture.
Dot the top with additional dressing, a whole olive, and a walnut.
Serve on a bed of lettuce.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Cucumber + lettucetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,409 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + olivetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,539 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Walnut + lettucetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together491 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Tomato + cucumbertop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,405 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Olive + lettucetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,580 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, cucumber, olive, lettuce):
- Chickpeafits better
- Beansfits better
- Lentilsfits better
- Walnutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, cucumber, olive, lettuce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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