Name: Fish Salad
Ingredients: cold boiled white fish, salmon, or lobster; lettuce or celery; mayonnaise sauce

Why it works: Fish and lettuce work together. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 196 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Fish Salad

Ingredients

cold boiled white fish, salmon, or lobster
lettuce or celery
mayonnaise sauce

Directions

Cut the fish into small pieces.
Mix the fish with lettuce or celery.
Add mayonnaise sauce to taste.

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.

Fish + lettucetop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together196 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Lettuce + saucetop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,019 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Fish + saucetop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,487 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

White fish, salmon, or lobster: Provides the main protein and flaky texture of the salad.
Lettuce or celery: Adds crisp texture and freshness that contrast with the soft fish.
Mayonnaise sauce: Adds richness and moisture, binding the fish and vegetables together.