Name: Mayonaise of Cold Fish, Lobster, Crab, Etc
Ingredients: cold fish (e.g., salmon, lobster, crab); shredded lettuce leaves; mayonnaise sauce; hard-boiled eggs (for garnish); sliced cucumber (for garnish); sliced tomatoes (for garnish); capers (for garnish); lobster coral (for garnish)

Why it works: Lettuce and cucumber match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,409 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mayonaise of Cold Fish, Lobster, Crab, Etc

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare mayonnaise sauce according to your preferred recipe.
Flake the cold fish into small pieces.
Mix the flaked fish with shredded lettuce leaves.
Cover the mixture with the mayonnaise sauce.
Garnish with slices of hard-boiled egg, cucumber, tomatoes, capers, or lobster coral.

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.

Lettuce + cucumbertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,409 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Lobster + crabtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together196 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
Lobster + saucetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,095 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Fish + salmontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,078 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Crab + saucetop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together238 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Swap the lettuce

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, salmon, lobster, crab, sauce, egg, cucumber):

Horseradishfits about as well
Chivefits about as well
Lettucethe original
Mustardfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, salmon, lobster, crab, sauce, egg, cucumber. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.