Name: Celery, English Walnut and Pimento Salad
Ingredients: ½ cup of beaten cream; ⅓ cup of mayonnaise; 1½ cups of sliced celery; ⅓ cup of English walnuts; 2 chopped pimentos; lettuce for serving

Why it works: Walnut and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 491 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Celery, English Walnut and Pimento Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Make the salad

In a bowl, combine the beaten cream, mayonnaise, sliced celery, English walnuts, and chopped pimentos.
Arrange the mixture in nests made of lettuce.

Garnish and serve

Garnish each nest with a pimento figure, a walnut, and some celery.
Place celery tips between the nests.

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.

Walnut + lettucetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together491 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Celery + lettucetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,033 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Celery + walnuttop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together852 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Cream + celerytop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,863 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).
Cream + walnuttop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,982 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

What each ingredient does

Beaten cream: Adds richness and a light, airy body to the dressing.
Mayonnaise: Provides fat and moisture that bind the salad and give it a creamy texture.
Sliced celery: Supplies crisp texture and a fresh, mildly savory crunch.
English walnuts: Add crunchy texture and a mildly nutty, buttery flavor.
Pimentos: Contribute sweetness, mild acidity, and a bright color.