Name: Orange Salad
Ingredients: firm, acid oranges; 2 tablespoons oil; 1 tablespoon lemon juice; coarse sea salt (to taste); ½ cup whipped sour cream; 1 tablespoon lemon juice; ¼ teaspoon salt; cayenne (to taste); lettuce leaves

Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Orange Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oranges

Cut the oranges in half and remove all the pulp from the skins.
Marinate the orange halves in oil, lemon juice, and a little salt.

Make the dressing and serve

In a bowl, mix whipped sour cream, lemon juice, salt, and cayenne to make the dressing.
Remove the oranges from the marinate and place them back in the skins.
Pour the cream dressing over the oranges and serve on lettuce leaves.

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.

Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,634 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Lemon + lettucetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,559 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Orange + lettucetop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together373 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Cream + lettucetop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,121 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Orange + creamtop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,170 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Firm, acid oranges: Their acidity and firm flesh form the base that holds the salad together.
Whipped sour cream: Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture to the dressing.
Oil: Carries flavour and adds fat to the orange halves during marinating.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the oranges and the dressing.