Name: Crunchy Summer Salad
Ingredients: 3 cups cooked rice, cooled; 2 medium carrots, sliced; 1 cup diagonally sliced celery; 1 tart red apple, cored and coarsely chopped; 1/2 cup slivered almonds, toasted; 3/4 cup mayonnaise; 1 tablespoon sugar; 1 teaspoon lemon juice; 1/2 teaspoon salt; 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. 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.

Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,173 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,467 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,555 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

Cooked rice: Forms the bulk of the salad and absorbs the dressing's flavour and moisture.
Mayonnaise: Provides fat and creaminess that coat the rice and bind the salad together.
Tart red apple: Adds crisp texture and a bright acidity that balances the creamy dressing.
Slivered almonds: Add crunch and a toasted, nutty aroma.
Sugar: Adds sweetness that balances the tartness of the apple and lemon juice.

The step that matters

Cool the rice before combining. Warm rice can make the mayonnaise separate and turn greasy, and it softens the apple and celery. Cooling the rice first keeps the dressing smooth and the textures distinct.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, carrot, celery, almond, sugar, lemon, pepper):

Limefits better
Orangefits better
Cherryfits better
Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, carrot, celery, almond, sugar, lemon, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Rice	1 cup cooked (158g) white	206
Apple	1 medium (182g)	95
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Almond	1 almond (1.2g)	7
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Crunchy Summer Salad