Name: Tomato Salad
Ingredients: 4 cups ripe tomatoes, sliced or cubed; 2 onions, chopped fine; 1 ½ lemons, juiced; 3 tablespoons olive oil; Coarse sea salt, to taste; Lettuce leaves, for serving; Pignolia nuts, for garnish

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

In a large dish, combine the sliced or cubed tomatoes, then add the chopped onions, lemon juice, olive oil, and salt.
Stir well to combine all ingredients.
Serve on lettuce leaves in salad dishes, sprinkled with pignolia nuts 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).
Olive + lettucetop 5% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together2,580 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Tomato + lettucetop 6% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together1,655 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Lemon + olivetop 7% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together11,922 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Onion + lettucetop 8% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together3,562 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes: Provide the bulk of the salad and its juicy, fresh body.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the tomatoes.
Olive oil: Adds fat and a smooth mouthfeel that carries the flavours.
Onions: Contribute sharp, pungent flavour and a bit of crunch.

Flavor stand-ins for the nuts

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

Chickpeabetter flavor fit
Beansbetter flavor fit
Sesamebetter flavor fit
Nutsthe original

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