Name: Egg and Cheese Salad
Ingredients: 12 hard-boiled eggs; a few capers; grated cheese; chopped pickles; dressing No. 3

Why it works: Egg and capers are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,311 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyraldehyde, which smells malty, chocolate. The science ↓

Egg and Cheese Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Slice the hard-boiled eggs and layer them in a dish.
Grate a thick layer of cheese over the eggs.
Add another layer of sliced eggs and continue alternating with cheese until all ingredients are used.
Sprinkle capers and chopped pickles on top.
Pour dressing No. 3 over the salad and cover with more grated cheese.

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.

Egg + caperstop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,311 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Capers + cheesetop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together100 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Egg + cheesetop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,253 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Hard-boiled eggs: Forms the bulk of the layers and adds richness and body to the salad.
Grated cheese: Adds fat and savory flavor, and binds the egg layers together.
Chopped pickles: Contribute acidity and a crisp, tangy contrast to the rich eggs and cheese.