Name: Cress, Celery and Nut Salad
Ingredients: equal quantities of watercress; diced celery; nut meats (English walnuts or pecans); French dressing

Why it works: Watercress and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 167 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Cress, Celery and Nut Salad

Ingredients

equal quantities of watercress
diced celery
nut meats (English walnuts or pecans)
French dressing

Directions

Combine equal amounts of watercress and diced celery in a bowl.
Sprinkle with nut meats.
Drizzle with French dressing and 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.

Watercress + celerytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together167 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Celery + meattop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,880 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Watercress + meattop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together70 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

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

What each ingredient does

Watercress: Provides a crisp, peppery leaf base that gives the salad its main body and bite.
Diced celery: Adds crunch and a fresh, mildly savory moisture to the salad.
Nut meats (english walnuts or pecans): Contributes crunch and a rich, toasty fat flavor that balances the greens.
French dressing: Adds moisture, sweetness and acidity that coats the leaves and celery.