Name: Apple Salad
Ingredients: ½ pound cold veal or lean pork; 2 large tart apples; 2 chopped pickles; 1 tablespoon olive oil; 1 tablespoon vinegar; salt to taste; pepper to taste; mayonnaise dressing

Why it works: Apple and olive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,335 recipes mention both. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, fruity. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: egg (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Chop the cold veal or pork and apples.
Add the chopped pickles, olive oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper.
Mix everything together with mayonnaise dressing.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Apple + olivetop 8% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together1,335 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
Olive + vinegartop 4% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together10,843 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
Vinegar + peppertop 6% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together27,805 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Olive + peppertop 6% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together27,398 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptenal (green).
Apple + vinegartop 8% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together1,830 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold veal or pork: Provides the main protein and substance of the salad.
Tart apples: Add crisp texture and a sharp, fresh contrast to the rich meat.
Pickles: Add acidity and a tangy bite that cuts through the dressing.
Mayonnaise dressing: Binds the salad together and adds moisture and richness.

“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.