Name: Cheese Salad No. 3
Ingredients: ½ pound English walnuts; 1 stalk of celery, chopped finely; 1 jar of Imperial Cheese (size No. 1)

Why it works: Walnut and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 852 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Cheese Salad No. 3

Ingredients

½ pound English walnuts
1 stalk of celery, chopped finely
1 jar of Imperial Cheese (size No. 1)

Directions

Chop the English walnuts and celery finely.
In a bowl, combine the chopped walnuts, celery, and Imperial Cheese, then mix thoroughly until well combined.
Serve immediately as a 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.

Walnut + celerytop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together852 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Walnut + cheesetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together410 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Celery + cheesetop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together647 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

English walnuts: Provide the main crunchy texture and nutty flavour of the salad.
Celery: Adds crisp texture and fresh, mild flavour that contrasts with the rich cheese.
Imperial cheese: Binds the chopped ingredients together and supplies the creamy, savoury body of the salad.