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Salad

Mustard Tomatoes

A salad of sliced tomatoes topped with a mustard‑cream dressing and hard‑boiled egg slices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mustard Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the tomatoes and place them on a plate.

  2. Season with coarse sea salt and black pepper to taste.

Make the dressing

  1. In a saucepan, combine yellow mustard, butter, sweet cream, and vinegar.

  2. Heat the mixture over low heat, stirring until it boils and thickens to a creamy consistency.

  3. If the dressing is too thick, add more vinegar.

Serve

  1. Spoon the dressing over each tomato slice and top with slices of hard boiled eggs.

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 + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,482 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

Solid tomatoes
Provide the main body and fresh flavour that the dressing is spooned over.
Yellow mustard
Adds sharp, tangy flavour that cuts through the richness of the butter and cream.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the dressing.
Sweet cream
Adds body and creaminess, helping the dressing thicken into a smooth sauce.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and can be adjusted to loosen it.
Hard boiled eggs
Add soft, mild richness that balances the sharp mustard dressing.

The step that matters

Heating the dressing over low heat. Cream and butter can separate or scorch if heated too fast. Gentle heat, with steady stirring, lets the mixture thicken smoothly into a creamy sauce instead of curdling.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, mustard, butter, cream, vinegar, egg):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, mustard, butter, cream, vinegar, egg. 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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