Name: Tomato Sandwiches
Ingredients: medium-sized smooth tomatoes; small leaves of lettuce; slices of bread; mayonnaise

Why it works: Tomato and lettuce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,655 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tomato Sandwiches

Ingredients

medium-sized smooth tomatoes
small leaves of lettuce
slices of bread
mayonnaise

Directions

Select firm, well-ripened tomatoes and peel them.
Slice the tomatoes thinly and chill them.
Cleanse and chill the small leaves of lettuce.
Cut thin circular slices of bread, slightly larger than the tomatoes.
Spread mayonnaise on the bread slices.
Assemble each sandwich with one leaf of lettuce and one slice of tomato, adding mayonnaise between them.
Serve the sandwiches cool and fresh.

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.

Tomato + lettucetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,655 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,013 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lettuce + breadtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together602 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).