Name: Cabbage Salad
Ingredients: ½ young, tender cabbage; 2 not over-ripe tomatoes; ½ teaspoon olive oil; juice of 1 small lime; salt to taste

Why it works: Tomato and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,539 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Cabbage Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Thinly slice half of the cabbage.
Peel and chop the tomatoes.
In a bowl, combine the cabbage and tomatoes.
Add olive oil, lime juice, and salt.
Stir well to combine.

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.

Tomato + olivetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,539 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Tomato + limetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,878 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Olive + limetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,621 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Cabbage + limetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together143 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Cabbage + tomatotop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together333 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage: Provides the crisp, fresh body and bulk of the salad.
Tomatoes: Add juiciness and moisture that help form a light dressing with the other ingredients.
Lime juice: Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and sharpens the salad.
Olive oil: Adds fat that carries flavour and gives the dressing a smooth mouthfeel.