Name: Tomato Salad
Ingredients: 12 tomatoes, peeled and sliced; 4 hard-boiled eggs; 1 raw egg, well beaten; 1 teaspoon salt; ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper; 1 teaspoon sugar; 1 cup vinegar

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

Combine the sliced tomatoes and hard-boiled eggs in a bowl.
In a separate bowl, mix the raw egg, salt, cayenne pepper, sugar, and vinegar.
Pour the dressing over the tomatoes and eggs.

Chill and serve

Chill the salad on ice until perfectly cold.

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.

Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Tomato + vinegartop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,063 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

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 juicy moisture of the salad.
Hard-boiled eggs: Add firm, mild protein body that absorbs some of the dressing's tang.
Raw egg: Beaten into the dressing, it thickens slightly as it blends with the vinegar and seasonings.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the tomatoes and balances the sugar.