Name: Apple Salad
Ingredients: 2 medium apples; Lettuce leaves; 1 ounce walnuts, chopped; 2 tablespoons cooked salad dressing; 1 ounce dates, chopped; Celery, chopped; Cress for garnish

Why it works: Lettuce and walnut 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 ↓

Apple Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Halve the apples or cut off the tops.
Scoop out the insides and chop them with walnuts, celery, and dates.
Add the salad dressing to the mixture.
If desired, nick the edges of the apples.

Assemble and serve

Fill the apples with the mixture, replace the tops, and serve on lettuce leaves garnished with cress.

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.

Lettuce + walnuttop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together491 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,033 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together852 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Walnut + datestop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together302 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Apple + celerytop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,155 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

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

What each ingredient does

Apples: Form the hollow shell that holds the filling and provides crisp, juicy texture.
Walnuts: Add crunch and a nutty flavor that contrasts with the soft fruit.
Cooked salad dressing: Binds the chopped filling together and adds moisture and richness.
Dates: Contribute natural sweetness and a chewy texture to the filling.
Celery: Adds crisp texture and a fresh, slightly savory bite to the filling.