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Salad

Stuffed Tomato Salad

A salad of cucumbers and tomatoes, seasoned with salt, pepper, vinegar, and gelatin, served in tomato shells with mayonnaise.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,405 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stuffed Tomato Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Cut cucumbers and tomato pulp into small pieces.

  2. Stew until tender.

  3. Sieve the mixture.

  4. Season with salt, pepper, and vinegar.

  5. Add enough soaked and dissolved gelatin to stiffen the mixture.

Fill and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into hollowed-out tomato shells.

  2. Chill.

  3. Serve with mayonnaise.

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. Cucumber + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  4. Cucumber + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,991 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatin
Sets the soft mixture so it holds its shape inside the tomato shells.
Cucumbers
Provide the main bulk and fresh crisp body of the filling.
Tomatoes
Supply the pulp for the filling and the shells that hold it.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor of the filling.
Mayonnaise
Adds fat and richness to the served salad.

The step that matters

Add enough soaked and dissolved gelatin to stiffen the mixture. Gelatin must be fully dissolved before it is stirred in, or it forms lumps and sets unevenly. Too little leaves the filling too loose to hold its shape, while too much makes it rubbery.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, pepper, vinegar, gelatin):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, pepper, vinegar, gelatin. 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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