Name: Peas and Cheese Salad
Ingredients: cooked green peas (canned); cream cheese; mayonnaise dressing; lettuce leaves; chopped pickle (optional)

Why it works: Peas and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,293 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Peas and Cheese Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Cut cream cheese into cubes.
Mix peas and cream cheese with mayonnaise dressing.
Add chopped pickle if desired.
Serve on lettuce leaves.

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.

Peas + lettucetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,293 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Peas + cream cheesetop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together44 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).
Cream cheese + lettucetop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together213 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

Cream cheese: Adds richness and a soft, creamy texture that coats the peas.
Mayonnaise dressing: Adds fat and moisture, binding the salad and giving it a smooth, tangy body.
Cooked green peas: Provide the main body and mild sweetness of the salad.