Why it works: Olive and capers match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,688 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Manhattan Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Combine equal quantities of cold chicken, celery, apples, and nuts in a bowl.
Mix in mayonnaise dressing to taste.
If desired, add chopped red peppers, olives, capers, or pimentoes.
Serve chilled.
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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Olive + caperstop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,688 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together16,012 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Celery + caperstop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together405 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Chicken + olivetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,888 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid hexyl ester (sweet, green).
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Celery + olivetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,667 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the capers
The recipe marks capers as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, celery, apple, nuts, pepper, olive):
- Thymefits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Rosemaryfits better
- Capersthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, celery, apple, nuts, pepper, olive. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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