Why it works: Peas and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,293 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓
Mushroom Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Drain the peas.
Fry the mushrooms in butter and salt until golden brown.
Cool the mushrooms and drain the peas thoroughly.
Chop the celery to measure twice the volume of the mushrooms.
Fold the peas and celery into the mushrooms with the mayonnaise.
Serve the mixture on a bed of lettuce.
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.
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Peas + lettucetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,293 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,525 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Peas + mushroomtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together890 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Lettuce + mushroomtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together292 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the lettuce
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peas, butter, cream, mushroom):
- Asparagusfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Potatofits better
- Lettucethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against peas, butter, cream, mushroom. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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