Name: Thousand Island Dressing
Ingredients: 4 tablespoons mayonnaise; 1 small piece mango, chopped fine; 2 tablespoons chili sauce; 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce; 2 spring onions, chopped fine; 2 tablespoons best olive oil; 1 hard-boiled egg, chopped fine; 2 tablespoons cream

Why it works: Onion and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,779 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Thousand Island Dressing

Ingredients

4 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 small piece mango, chopped fine
2 tablespoons chili sauce
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
2 spring onions, chopped fine
2 tablespoons best olive oil
1 hard-boiled egg, chopped fine
2 tablespoons cream

Directions

Combine mayonnaise, chopped mango, chili sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and chopped spring onions in a bowl.
Add the chopped hard-boiled egg and mix well.
Do not add olive oil and cream until ready to serve.

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.

Onion + olivetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together29,779 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Mango + olivetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together488 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,787 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Mango + oniontop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together682 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Onion + creamtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together10,827 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

Onion and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,827 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Mayonnaise: Forms the creamy, fatty base that carries the other flavours.
Chili sauce: Adds sweetness, acidity and a mild heat that gives the dressing its colour and bite.
Hard-boiled egg: Adds body and a soft, rich texture to the dressing.
Mango: Contributes fruity sweetness and a little texture.
Olive oil: Adds fat and a fruity aroma to the finished dressing.
Cream: Adds richness and loosens the dressing to a pourable consistency.

Swap the mango

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, onion, olive, egg, cream):

Avocadofits better
Coconutfits better
Pumpkinfits about as well
Mangothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, onion, olive, egg, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

Chicken Salad623 recipes

Salad Dressing491 recipes

Tomato Salad179 recipes

Cold Slaw160 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Thousand Island Dressing