Name: Pear Salad
Ingredients: Soft baked or canned pears; 2 tablespoons grated cheese per person; Pecans, black walnuts, hickory nuts, or peanuts; Lettuce; Wesson oil mayonnaise; 1 pint cooked potatoes; 1 cup shredded cabbage; 1 onion, grated or finely chopped

Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pear Salad

Ingredients

Soft baked or canned pears
2 tablespoons grated cheese per person
Pecans, black walnuts, hickory nuts, or peanuts
Lettuce
Wesson oil mayonnaise
1 pint cooked potatoes
1 cup shredded cabbage
1 onion, grated or finely chopped

Directions

Assemble the pear salad

Arrange soft baked or canned pears on a plate.
Top each pear with 2 tablespoons of grated cheese.
Add a handful of pecans, black walnuts, hickory nuts, or peanuts.
Serve on a bed of lettuce with Wesson oil mayonnaise.

Prepare the potato mixture

Mix cooked potatoes, shredded cabbage, and grated onion in a bowl.
Serve the potato mixture alongside the salad.

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.

Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Lettuce + cabbagetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together622 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together322 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Cabbage + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,001 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Lettuce + oniontop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,562 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

Pears: Provide the sweet, soft fruit base that the other toppings sit on.
Grated cheese: Adds savory flavor and richness that contrasts with the sweet pear.
Pecans, black walnuts, hickory nuts, or peanuts: Add crunch and a toasty, nutty flavor against the soft pear.
Wesson oil mayonnaise: Adds fat and creaminess, moistening the salad and adding tang.
Cooked potatoes: Provide starchy bulk and a soft, filling texture in the side mixture.
Shredded cabbage: Adds crisp texture and a mild, fresh bite to the potato mixture.

Swap the pecans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pear, cheese, lettuce, potato, cabbage, onion):

Beansfits better
Chestnutfits better
Sesamefits better
Pecansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pear, cheese, lettuce, potato, cabbage, onion. 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.