Name: Cheese Salad
Ingredients: 1 pound Cheddar cheese, diced; 2 large raw onions, peeled and diced; 2 heads celery, well-washed and diced; ½ pound lean cooked ham, diced; Trench dressing; Coralline pepper, for sprinkling; Crisp lettuce, finely shredded

Why it works: Celery and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,033 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Cheese Salad

Ingredients

1 pound Cheddar cheese, diced
2 large raw onions, peeled and diced
2 heads celery, well-washed and diced
½ pound lean cooked ham, diced
Trench dressing
Coralline pepper, for sprinkling
Crisp lettuce, finely shredded

Directions

Prepare

Dice the Cheddar cheese and place it in a bowl.
Add the diced onions, celery, and cooked ham.

Dress and serve

Dress the mixture with Trench dressing.
Mound the salad on a serving plate.
Sprinkle with coralline pepper and top with shredded lettuce.
Serve for luncheon or gatherings.

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.

Celery + lettucetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,033 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,518 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Onion + lettucetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,562 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + lettucetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,037 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Cheddar cheese: Provides rich flavor and body, and its fat adds richness to the salad.
Raw onions: Add sharp, pungent flavor and crunch to balance the cheese and ham.
Celery: Adds crisp texture and fresh, mild flavor to the mixture.
Cooked ham: Adds savory, meaty flavor and substance to the salad.

Swap the lettuce

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheddar cheese, onion, celery, ham, pepper):

Mustardfits better
Carrotfits better
Potatofits better
Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cheddar cheese, onion, celery, ham, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.