Name: Cherry Salad
Ingredients: 1 can white cherries; ½ lb blanched almonds; 1 can sliced pineapple; Mayonnaise; Lettuce

Why it works: Almond and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 210 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Cherry Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Remove the seeds from the cherries and stuff them with almonds.
Place a slice of pineapple on a bed of lettuce.
Top the pineapple with the stuffed cherries.
Drizzle mayonnaise over the salad.

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.

Almond + lettucetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together210 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Pineapple + lettucetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together271 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Almond + pineappletop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together428 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Blanched almonds: Add crunch and a mild nutty flavour that contrasts with the soft fruit.
White cherries: Provide sweetness and juiciness.
Sliced pineapple: Adds sweetness, acidity and moisture to the salad.
Mayonnaise: Adds fat and creaminess, giving a rich, smooth coating.