Name: Shrimp Salad
Ingredients: 1 pint can shrimps or 1 pint cooked fresh shrimps; 3 tablespoons Filippini dressing; Lettuce leaves for garnish; Mayonnaise for spreading; 1 teaspoon capers; 2 hard boiled eggs, quartered

Why it works: Lettuce and capers match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 372 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Shrimp Salad

Ingredients

1 pint can shrimps or 1 pint cooked fresh shrimps
3 tablespoons Filippini dressing
Lettuce leaves for garnish
Mayonnaise for spreading
1 teaspoon capers
2 hard boiled eggs, quartered

Directions

In a bowl, combine the shrimps and season with Filippini dressing.
Garnish a salad bowl with lettuce leaves.
Heap the seasoned shrimps in the center of the bowl.
Spread mayonnaise over the shrimps.
Sprinkle capers over the top.
Arrange the quartered hard boiled eggs around the base.

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.

Lettuce + caperstop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together372 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Shrimp + caperstop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together179 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Shrimp + lettucetop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together430 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Capers + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,311 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Shrimp + eggtop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,829 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptenal (green).

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

What each ingredient does

Shrimps: Provide the main protein and bulk of the salad.
Filippini dressing: Seasons the shrimps, adding flavour before they are heaped and served.
Mayonnaise: Adds richness and moisture, coating the shrimps with a creamy layer.
Hard boiled eggs: Add creamy yolk and firm white for texture and contrast with the shrimp.
Capers: Add a sharp, briny acidity that cuts through the richness of the mayonnaise.