Skip to main content

Ham and Cheese Pasta Salad

"When I make this pasta salad, I usually pair it with hot dogs, fried chicken, or sandwiches. I also make it whenever I have leftover ham. This is a recipe with ingredients that can be easily changed to suit your own taste."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Ham and Cheese Pasta Salad

Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Ham and Cheese Pasta Salad

16 servings
Prep15 min
Cook10 min

Ingredients

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

920Calories
62 gProtein
38 gFat
80 gCarbs

Counts 10 of 12 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 10 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Pork100g cooked242
Pasta1 cup cooked (140g)220
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Cheddar Cheese1 oz (28g)113
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Pea1/2 cup (72g)62
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Relishnot in our table0
Pimentonot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

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.

  1. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Pasta + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together331 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Pasta + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Pasta + peastop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together265 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, pepper, pasta, ham, cheddar cheese, onion, celery):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Lentilsfits better
  3. Black-eyed peafits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, pepper, pasta, ham, cheddar cheese, onion, celery. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.