Name: Cherry Salad
Ingredients: 3 cups cherries, pitted; 1 cup blanched almonds, cut into strips; 2 peaches, sliced; a little sugar; lettuce leaves; mayonnaise dressing

Why it works: Almond and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 210 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Cherry Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Pit and measure 3 cups of cherries.
Cut 1 cup of blanched almonds into strips.
Slice 2 peaches.

Assemble and serve

Combine all ingredients with a little sugar.
Serve on lettuce leaves with mayonnaise dressing.

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.

Almond + lettucetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together210 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Almond + peachtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Peach + lettucetop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Peach + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,308 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,679 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

What each ingredient does

Cherries: Provide the main fruit flavor, sweetness and juicy texture in the salad.
Blanched almonds: Add crunch and a nutty flavor that contrasts with the soft fruit.
Peaches: Add sweet, juicy fruit flavor and softness to the salad.