Name: Chapon for Salad Dressing
Ingredients: 1 slice of bread (about the size of a half dollar); 1 clove of garlic

Why it works: Clove and garlic are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,368 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

Chapon for Salad Dressing

Ingredients

1 slice of bread (about the size of a half dollar)
1 clove of garlic

Directions

Rub the slice of bread with the clove of garlic.
Mix the garlic-rubbed bread into 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.

Clove + garlictop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,368 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Bread + garlictop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together767 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Bread + clovetop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,129 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread: Its starchy crumb soaks up the dressing and adds body and a toasty, savory bite.
Garlic: Supplies pungent aroma and sharp flavor that carries through the dish.