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Tomato Salad

A salad of peeled tomatoes seasoned with salt, pepper, powdered sugar, and white wine vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Tomato Salad

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 ↓

Tomato Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Scald tomatoes thoroughly, then drain and peel them.

  2. Slice tomatoes evenly and set them on ice.

Layer and dress

  1. In a salad bowl, layer tomatoes, sprinkling each layer with salt, pepper, and powdered sugar.

  2. Continue layering until all tomatoes are used.

  3. Pour enough white wine vinegar over the tomatoes to barely cover them.

  4. If the vinegar is too strong, dilute it with water.

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

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

  2. White wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Tomato + white winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,226 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Pepper + white winetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,433 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

Tomatoes
Provide the main body and juice of the salad.
White wine vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the tomatoes.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Pour enough white wine vinegar over the tomatoes to barely cover them.. Too little vinegar leaves the salad flat, while too much overwhelms the tomatoes. Diluting with water if the vinegar is too strong keeps the acid level balanced against the sugar and salt.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, sugar, white wine, vinegar):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, sugar, white wine, vinegar. 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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