Name: Tomato Salad
Ingredients: raw ripe tomatoes; chives or spring onion stems; olive oil; freshly ground black pepper; coarse sea salt; vinegar (preferably tarragon or aromatic); minced fines herbes; strips of red or green capsicum

Why it works: Tomato and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,539 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Tomato Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Slice the raw ripe tomatoes.
Sprinkle with chives or spring onion stems.
Drizzle with olive oil and season with black pepper and coarse sea salt.
Add vinegar to taste, using more due to the sweetness of the tomatoes.
Sprinkle minced fines herbes over the salad.
Garnish with strips of red or green capsicum.

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 + olivetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,539 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Tomato + capsicumtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,520 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,571 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Olive + capsicumtop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,677 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Chive + olivetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,633 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the chive

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, olive, pepper, vinegar, capsicum):

Eggplantfits better
Cucumberfits better
Okrafits better
Chivethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, olive, pepper, vinegar, capsicum. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.