Name: Macaroni and Celery Salad
Ingredients: 1 pint boiled macaroni; 1 pint celery, chopped; ½ pint chopped nuts; ½ pint salad dressing; 6 lettuce leaves

Why it works: Celery and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,033 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Macaroni and Celery Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Make the salad

Cut the macaroni into ½ inch pieces.
Cut the celery in the same manner and mix with the macaroni.
Add the salad dressing and sprinkle in the nuts.

Assemble and serve

Line a salad dish with the lettuce leaves.
Place the salad on the lettuce in the dish.
Chill and serve.

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.

Celery + lettucetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,033 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Nuts + lettucetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together174 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Celery + nutstop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together169 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Macaroni: Forms the bulk of the salad and gives it a firm, chewy body.
Celery: Adds crisp texture and a fresh crunch that contrasts with the soft pasta.
Salad dressing: Coats the pasta and celery, adding moisture, richness and tangy flavor.
Chopped nuts: Add crunch and a toasty, savory note against the soft pasta.