Name: Herring Salad
Ingredients: 7 milchner herrings; 3 small onions; 4 apples, peeled and cored; a handful of hickory nuts (or other nut meats); vinegar to taste; sugar to taste; pepper to taste; spiced sauce or jelly (optional)

Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Herring Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the herrings

Soak the muncher herrings in cold water overnight.
The next day, remove the munchers and skin and bone the herrings.

Chop and mix

Chop the onions, herrings, apples, and nuts.
Rub the munchers through a sieve and mix with vinegar, sugar, and pepper.
Combine all ingredients and add spiced sauce or jelly if desired.

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.

Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,147 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,226 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Herrings: Forms the main body and savory flavor of the salad.
Onions: Adds sharp aroma and bite that cuts through the richness of the fish.
Apples: Adds moisture and crisp sweetness that balances the fish.
Nut meats: Adds crunch and a toasted, nutty contrast to the soft ingredients.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the sweetness.

Swap the nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, apple, vinegar, sugar, pepper, sauce):

Sesamefits better
Chestnutfits better
Beansfits better
Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, apple, vinegar, sugar, pepper, sauce. 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.