Name: Vegetable Salad
Ingredients: 3 medium boiled beets; 2 large boiled potatoes; 1 carrot; 2 hard boiled eggs; 1 head of lettuce; salt; pepper; French dressing

Why it works: Potato and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,107 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Vegetable Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Cut the beets, potatoes, carrot, and 1 hard boiled egg into small pieces.
Combine the vegetables in a bowl and season with salt and pepper.

Assemble and serve

Form the salad into a pyramid shape on a serving plate.
Use the head of lettuce to top the pyramid and slice the remaining egg to decorate the dish.
Serve with French 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.

Potato + carrottop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,107 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,555 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Carrot + lettucetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together976 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Potato + lettucetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together322 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 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

Beets: Provide color, sweetness and an earthy body to the salad.
Potatoes: Add starchy bulk that holds the diced pieces together in a pyramid.
Hard boiled eggs: Add richness and firm texture, and decorate the finished dish.
Lettuce: Adds crisp texture and a fresh base for the pyramid.