Why it works: Tomato and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,539 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Mexican Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Cut green peppers in half lengthwise, remove seeds, and place in cold water.
Chop the red pepper very finely and dice the tomatoes.
Chop the cabbage.
Combine red pepper, tomatoes, and cabbage, then mix with 5 tablespoons of mayonnaise dressing.
Remove peppers from cold water, wipe dry, and place on salad plates.
Fill the peppers with the mixture, heaping it up.
Lay watercress around the salad plate with the stuffed olives cut in halves.
Pour remaining mayonnaise dressing over the top of each filled half pepper.
If desired, pour 1 teaspoon of white vinegar over the pepper before adding the remaining mayonnaise dressing.
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.
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Tomato + olivetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,539 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Pepper + cabbagetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,081 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + cabbagetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,001 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,633 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
Swap the cabbage
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, tomato, onion, olive, vinegar):
- Capsicumfits better
- Cucumberfits better
- Eggplantfits better
- Cabbagethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, tomato, onion, olive, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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