Name: Tomato and Shrimp Salad
Ingredients: 1 large can shrimps; 3 tomatoes, peeled and cut into small pieces; 1 stalk of celery, cut into pieces; mayonnaise; lettuce leaves; slices of cold meat; slices of green pepper; cream cheese; nuts

Why it works: Celery and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,033 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Tomato and Shrimp Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Make the salad

Mix the shrimp, tomatoes, and celery thoroughly with mayonnaise.

Assemble the platter

Serve the mixture on lettuce leaves in the center of a large platter.
Surround with slices of cold meat and garnish with slices of green pepper stuffed with cream cheese and nuts.

Prepare the garnish

Stuff the peppers and allow them to harden for several hours before using.

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.

Celery + lettucetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,033 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,377 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Tomato + lettucetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,655 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 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

Shrimp: Provides the main body and savory bulk of the salad.
Mayonnaise: Adds fat and creaminess that binds the salad together and keeps it moist.
Tomatoes: Contribute moisture and a mild acidity that brightens the salad.
Celery: Adds crisp texture that contrasts with the soft shrimp and mayonnaise.
Cream cheese: Gives the pepper stuffing richness and a firm, creamy texture when chilled.

The step that matters

Stuff the peppers and let them harden. Cream cheese is mostly fat, which firms as it cools. Allowing several hours of chilling lets the filling set so it holds its shape on the platter.

Swap the nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shrimp, tomato, celery, lettuce, meat, pepper, cream cheese):

Beansfits better
Walnutfits better
Sesamefits better
Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, tomato, celery, lettuce, meat, pepper, cream cheese. 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.

Tomato Salad179 recipes

Chicken Salad623 recipes

Salad Dressing491 recipes

Cold Slaw160 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Tomato and Shrimp Salad