Name: Spinach Salad with Spicy Tomato Vinaigrette with Hard Cooked Egg and Edwards Bacon
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 10 min
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients: 8 cups Spinach, tender, young and washed (I used organic baby spinach); 4 Eggs, hard boiled, peeled and crumbled; 8 ounces Smokey Bacon, Slab Edwards of Surry, VA, cooked and roughly chopped (I used Coleman Natural Uncured Hickory Smoked Bacon); 1/2 cup Ketchup; 1/2 cup Apple Cider Vinegar (I use Spectrum Organic); 1/2 cup Sugar, granulated; 1/4 cup Honey (I use local honey); 1 teaspoon Kosher Salt; 1 Tablespoon Black Pepper, freshly ground; 3/4 cup Blend Oil (90% Canola, 10% Extra Virgin Olive Oil)

Why it works: Spinach and olive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,971 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

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.

Spinach + olivetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Spinach + peppertop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,400 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Ketchup + sugartop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together260 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Apple cider vinegar + honeytop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together169 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).
Pepper + olivetop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together30,263 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

Swap the spinach

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, ketchup, apple cider vinegar, sugar, honey, pepper, olive):

Capsicumfits better
Mustardfits better
Tomatofits better
Spinachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, ketchup, apple cider vinegar, sugar, honey, pepper, olive. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Canola	1 tbsp (14g)	124
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Honey	1 tbsp (21g)	64
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Bacon	1 slice cooked (8g)	43
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Spinach	1 cup raw (30g)	7
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Spinach Salad with Spicy Tomato Vinaigrette with Hard Cooked Egg and Edwards Bacon