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 raw ripe tomatoes.
Sprinkle with chives or spring onion stems.
Dress and serve
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 herbs over the salad.
Add strips of red or green capsicum for flavor.
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.
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Tomato + olivetop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together15,539 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Tomato + capsicumtop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together10,520 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pepper + capsicumtop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together34,571 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Olive + capsicumtop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together14,677 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
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Chive + olivetop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned 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
What each ingredient does
- Raw ripe tomatoes
- Provide the main body, juice and sweetness of the salad.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that balances the sweetness of the tomatoes.
- Olive oil
- Adds fat and a smooth mouthfeel that carries the seasoning.
The step that matters
Add vinegar to taste. Tomatoes vary in sweetness, and acid is needed to balance them. Adding too little leaves the salad flat, while too much overwhelms the fresh tomato flavour. Tasting as you go gives the best balance.
Flavor stand-ins for the chive
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, olive, pepper, vinegar, capsicum):
- Eggplantbetter flavor fit
- Cucumberbetter flavor fit
- Okrabetter flavor fit
- 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. 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.
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