Name: Celery and Apple Salad
Ingredients: 1 bunch tender white celery, diced; 1-2 tart apples, thinly sliced; Salt and pepper to taste; Mayonnaise dressing; Lettuce leaves for serving; Celery leaves or pomegranate seeds for garnish

Why it works: Celery and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,033 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Celery and Apple Salad

Ingredients

1 bunch tender white celery, diced
1-2 tart apples, thinly sliced
Salt and pepper to taste
Mayonnaise dressing
Lettuce leaves for serving
Celery leaves or pomegranate seeds for garnish

Directions

Prepare

Dice the tender white celery, including the heart and leaves.
Season the celery with salt and pepper.

Assemble and serve

Thinly slice the tart apples and mix them with the celery in equal quantities.
Add mayonnaise dressing until the mixture reaches a good consistency.
Serve on lettuce leaves and garnish with celery leaves or pomegranate seeds.

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.

Celery + lettucetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,033 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + lettucetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,037 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Celery + appletop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,155 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).
Apple + lettucetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together515 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Celery: Provides the crisp, crunchy texture that gives the salad its body.
Tart apples: Add crisp texture and a bright, acidic contrast to the rich dressing.
Mayonnaise dressing: Adds fat and creaminess, binding the celery and apple together.