Why it works: Tomato and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,377 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Tomato Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Dip the tomatoes in boiling water, then skin and slice them thinly.
Shred the celery and soak it in cold water for 30 minutes.
Wash the cress well.
Assemble
Arrange the tomato slices in a neat circle on a salad dish and pour the dressing over.
Pile the celery or cress in the center.
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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Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,377 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Tomatoes
- Provide juicy body, acidity and sweetness as the base of the salad.
- Celery
- Adds crisp, crunchy texture that contrasts with the soft tomato slices.
- French dressing
- Adds fat and acidity that carry flavor and moisten the tomatoes.
The step that matters
Soaking the shredded celery. Soaking shredded celery in cold water makes its cells take up water, so the strands crisp and curl. Skipping or shortening the soak leaves the celery limp and less crunchy, and it will wilt faster once dressed.
“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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