Name: Peanut Salad
Ingredients: 1 cup peanuts; ½ cup olive oil; 2 cups finely chopped celery; 12 pitted olives; mayonnaise dressing; lettuce

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 ↓

Peanut Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Soak the peanuts in olive oil for a few minutes, then drain.

Make the salad

In a bowl, mix the drained peanuts with the chopped celery and pitted olives.
Add mayonnaise dressing to the mixture and combine well.

Serve

Serve the salad on a bed of lettuce.

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).
Olive + lettucetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,580 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Peanut + lettucetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together170 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,027 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Olive + celerytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,667 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Peanuts: Provide the crunchy, nutty body that gives the salad its main texture.
Olive oil: Coats and softens the peanuts during the brief soak, adding richness.
Celery: Adds a crisp, fresh crunch that contrasts with the soft dressing.
Olives: Contribute a salty, briny flavour that balances the richness of the dressing.
Mayonnaise dressing: Binds the ingredients together and adds creamy moisture and fat.