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Salad

Tomato Salad

A salad of tomatoes, lettuce, nuts, fruit, and candied cherries dressed with French and mayonnaise dressings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Tomato Salad

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 Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Select 2 tomatoes of similar size and plunge them into boiling water.

  2. Remove the tomatoes and cut out a circular piece around the stem end of each.

  3. Peel off the skin and set the tomatoes aside on ice to chill.

Assemble and serve

  1. When ready to serve, place each tomato on a lettuce leaf seasoned with French Dressing.

  2. Fill each cavity with a spoonful of finely chopped nut meats and fruit, then top with Mayonnaise Dressing and a candied cherry.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

  3. Lettuce + meattop 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
Serve as the hollowed cup that holds the filling, with a cool, juicy base.
Finely chopped nut meats
Add crunch and texture contrasting with the soft tomato.
Finely chopped fruit
Adds sweetness and juiciness to the filling.
Mayonnaise dressing
Adds fat and richness that moistens the filling and tomato.

The step that matters

Peel the tomatoes after blanching and chilling. Brief boiling loosens the skin so it lifts off cleanly. Chilling firms the flesh so the tomato holds its shape when filled and served cold.

Swap the lettuce

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, meat. 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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