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Salad

Lettuce and Tomato Salad, with Lime Juice and Olive Oil

A fresh salad of lettuce and tomatoes dressed with lime juice and olive oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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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 ↓

Lettuce and Tomato Salad, with Lime Juice and Olive Oil

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and chop the lettuce.

  2. Slice the tomatoes.

Assemble and dress

  1. In a bowl, combine the lettuce and tomatoes.

  2. Drizzle with lime juice and olive oil.

  3. Toss gently to combine.

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.

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 + olivetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,539 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Lettuce + limetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together408 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Lettuce + olivetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Lettuce + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,655 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + limetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,878 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Lettuce
Provides crisp, watery bulk that gives the salad its main texture.
Tomatoes
Add juiciness and a sweet, slightly acidic flavor.
Lime juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the vegetables.
Olive oil
Adds fat that carries flavor and gives the dressing a smooth mouthfeel.

Swap the lime

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

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Cherryfits about as well
  3. Limethe original
  4. Plumfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against lettuce, tomato, olive. 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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