Name: Cherry Salad
Ingredients: 1 can white cherries; filberts or almonds (or other nuts); 1 slice of pineapple; 1 lettuce leaf; mayonnaise dressing

Why it works: Pineapple and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 271 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Cherry Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Remove the seeds from the cherries.
Insert a filbert or almond into each cherry.

Serve

Serve the cherries on a slice of pineapple placed on a lettuce leaf.
Drizzle with mayonnaise dressing.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

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.

Pineapple + lettucetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together271 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Filbert + pineappletop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together12 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Filbert + lettucetop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

White cherries: Provide the sweet, juicy fruit that forms the centre of the salad.
Filberts or almonds: Add crunch and a rich, fatty contrast to the soft fruit.
Pineapple: Adds extra sweetness and a bright acidity that complements the cherries.
Mayonnaise dressing: Adds creaminess and richness, coating the fruit and nuts with fat.