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Salad

Tomato and Cucumber Salad

A salad of sliced tomatoes and cucumbers with a mayonnaise dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,356 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tomato and Cucumber Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salad

  1. Slice the tomatoes and cucumbers alternately and arrange them on two sides of a salad bowl.

  2. Place a line of lettuce leaves between the tomato and cucumber slices.

Make the mayonnaise

  1. Prepare the mayonnaise by whisking together the egg yolks, lemon juice or vinegar, salt, paprika, and mustard.

  2. Slowly add the oil while whisking until the dressing is thick.

  3. Decorate the tomato slices with stars of mayonnaise dressing.

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. Lettuce + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,356 recipes

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

  2. Cucumber + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,409 recipes

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

  3. Cucumber + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + cucumbertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + lettucetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,655 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

Egg yolks
Emulsify the oil into a thick, stable mayonnaise dressing.
Oil
Forms the body of the mayonnaise, giving it richness and thickness.
Lemon juice or vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and helps balance its richness.
Tomatoes
Provide moisture, acidity, and fresh flavor as the salad's main vegetable.
Cucumbers
Add crisp texture and cooling moisture to the salad.

The step that matters

Slowly add the oil while whisking. Oil must be added in a slow, steady stream so it disperses into tiny droplets held by the egg yolk emulsifier. Adding it too fast can break the mayonnaise into a greasy, runny mixture that will not thicken.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, cucumber, lettuce, egg, mustard):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, cucumber, lettuce, egg, mustard. 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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