Name: Salata Tun
Ingredients: 200g (7oz) can tuna in brine, drained; 2 red peppers, thinly sliced; 1 medium red onion, finely chopped; 1 tablespoon coriander, finely chopped (stems discarded); 3 tablespoons olive oil; ½ teaspoon salt; pinch of black pepper; 1 garlic clove, crushed; 200g (7oz) pitted black olives; 1 hard boiled egg, chopped in quarters; juice of half a lemon; lemon wedges

Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. 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.

Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Coriander + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,498 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,665 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,474 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

Tuna: Provides the main protein and flaky, meaty body of the salad.
Olive oil: Adds fat and smooth richness that carries the flavours of the dressing.
Red peppers: Add sweetness and softness once charred and peeled.
Black olives: Add salty, savoury depth and a firm, meaty bite.
Hard boiled egg: Adds creamy richness and body to the salad.
Red onion: Adds sharp, pungent bite that mellows during chilling.

The step that matters

Charring the peppers. The skins must be blackened until charred so they loosen easily after steaming in the bag. Under-charred skins stay tough and cling to the flesh, while the trapped steam finishes softening the peppers.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, coriander, olive, garlic, clove, egg, lemon):

Spinachfits better
Capsicumfits better
Tomatofits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, coriander, olive, garlic, clove, egg, lemon. 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
Salmon	100g cooked	208
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Clove	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Olive	1 large (4g)	4
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Coriander	not in our table	0

Salata Tun

Salata Tun

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Roast the peppers

Make the salad

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)