Name: Pot Cheese Salad
Ingredients: pot cheese; mayonnaise dressing; lettuce leaves; cream or butter (optional); boiled dressing (optional)

Why it works: Cheese and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,655 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Pot Cheese Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Mix the pot cheese with mayonnaise dressing.
If the cheese is dry, mix it with cream or butter.
Chill the mixture.

Serve

Place 1 teaspoon of the cheese mixture on a plate of lettuce leaves for each guest.
Serve boiled dressing or mayonnaise separately on the lettuce leaves 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.

Cheese + creamtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,655 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cheese + lettucetop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together614 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Lettuce + creamtop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,121 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Pot cheese: Forms the main body of the salad and gives it its creamy, mild texture.
Mayonnaise dressing: Adds fat and moisture, binding the cheese into a smooth, spreadable mixture.
Lettuce leaves: Provide a crisp, fresh base that contrasts with the rich cheese.