Name: Favourite Caesar Salad
Ingredients: salad dressing; 3 tbsp light mayonnaise; 1 clove garlic, minced; 2 tbsp red wine vinegar; 1 tbsp dijon mustard; 1 tbsp lemon juice; 1 dash hot pepper sauce; 1 dash worcestershire sauce; 1/4 cup olive oil; 2 tbsp water; salad; 8 cup romaine lettuce leaves torn; 1 1/2 cup toasted bread croutons; 1 tbsp grated parmesan cheese

Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. 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.

Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Garlic + mustardtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together4,053 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Garlic + peppertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,090 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Mayonnaise: Adds creamy body and emulsified richness to the dressing.
Olive oil: Provides fat that gives the dressing its smooth, silky texture.
Red wine vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the oil.
Romaine lettuce leaves: Forms the crisp, leafy base that carries the dressing.
Toasted bread croutons: Add crunch and absorb dressing for contrasting texture.

The step that matters

Gradually whisk in olive oil and water. Adding the oil slowly while whisking lets it disperse into small droplets held by the emulsifiers in mayonnaise and mustard, giving a smooth dressing instead of a separated, oily one.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clove, garlic, red wine, vinegar, mustard, pepper, sauce):

Limefits better
Plumfits better
Avocadofits about as well
Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clove, garlic, red wine, vinegar, mustard, pepper, sauce. 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
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Parmesan Cheese	1 oz (28g)	110
Bread	1 slice (30g) white	79
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Soy Sauce	1 tbsp (15ml)	9
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Romaine Lettuce	1 cup shredded (36g)	5
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Mustard	1 tsp (5g) yellow	3
Salad Dressing	not in our table	0
Sauce	not in our table	0
Water	not in our table	0
Salad	not in our table	0

Favourite Caesar Salad