Name: Salad Dressings and Salads
Ingredients: greens; coarse sea salt; pepper; oil; vinegar; canned or cold cooked left-over vegetables; French dressing; meat; fish

Why it works: Meat and fish work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 479 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Salad Dressings and Salads

Ingredients

Directions

Wash the greens thoroughly and soak them in cold or ice water until crisp.
Drain the greens and spread them on a towel; set aside in a cold place until serving.
For canned or cold cooked vegetables, mix with French dressing and let stand in a cold place for 1 hour before serving.
If using multiple vegetables, marinate them separately and arrange just before serving.
For meat, remove skin and gristle, cut into small cubes, and mix with French dressing before combining with vegetables.
For fish, flake or cut into cubes.
When dressing the salad at the table, first sprinkle with salt and pepper, then add oil, and lastly vinegar.

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.

Meat + fishtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together479 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + meattop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,777 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Pepper + fishtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,948 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Vinegar + fishtop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,036 recipes

Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).