Name: Tomato Salad
Ingredients: 2 ripe tomatoes; 1 Bombay onion; ¼ cup olive oil; 2 tablespoons vinegar; tarragon or aromatic vinegar (to taste); minced fines herbes (to taste); strips of green capsicum (to taste)

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

Tomato Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Slice the tomatoes and the Bombay onion.
In a bowl, combine the tomatoes and onion.

Dress and serve

Add olive oil and vinegar, adjusting to taste.
Sprinkle with tarragon or aromatic vinegar and minced fines herbes.
Top with strips of green capsicum before serving.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Tomato + olivetop 1% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together15,539 recipes

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

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together10,520 recipes

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

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together14,677 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Tomato + tarragontop 6% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together391 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Tarragon + capsicumtop 7% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together876 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Ripe tomatoes: Provide the main body and juice that the dressing coats and flavours.
Bombay onion: Adds sharp pungency that balances the sweetness of the tomatoes.
Olive oil: Adds fat and a smooth mouthfeel that carries the herb and vinegar flavours.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the tomatoes and balances the oil.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

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

Cucumberbetter flavor fit
Lettucebetter flavor fit
Eggplantbetter flavor fit
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, olive, vinegar, tarragon, capsicum. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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.