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Salad

Tomato Salad, French Dressing

A salad of sliced tomatoes dressed with vinegar, oil, salt, pepper, and optional chives.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tomato Salad, French Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Wipe the tomatoes and plunge them into boiling water for 1 minute.

  2. Remove and drain them in a cloth, then peel off the skins.

  3. Cut off the stem side and let them cool.

Dress and serve

  1. Slice the tomatoes thinly or cut into quarters, keeping them in a bowl to catch the juice.

  2. Season with salt, pepper, vinegar, and oil.

  3. Mix thoroughly and serve cold.

  4. Add chopped chives for extra flavor if desired.

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 + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + chivetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together538 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Pepper + chivetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,885 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Tomato + vinegartop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,063 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Red tomatoes
Provide the main body and juicy flesh of the salad.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the tomatoes and balances the oil.
Oil
Adds fat and carries flavor through the dressing, giving it a smooth mouthfeel.

Swap the chive

The recipe marks chive as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, pepper, vinegar):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Cucumberfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Chivethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, vinegar. 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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