Name: Nectarine and Almond Salad
Ingredients: 1 quart nectarines; ½ cup almonds; ⅔ cup mayonnaise; ⅓ cup whipped cream; Lettuce leaves

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 ↓

Nectarine and Almond Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Remove the skin from the nectarines and slice them.
Blanch and thinly slice the almonds.

Assemble and serve

Mix the nectarines and almonds together.
Add the mayonnaise and whipped cream to the mixture.
Serve the salad 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.

Almond + lettucetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together210 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,130 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
Cream + lettucetop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,121 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Nectarines: Provide the sweet, juicy fruit base that gives the salad its flavor and moisture.
Almonds: Add crunch and a nutty flavor that contrasts with the soft fruit.
Mayonnaise: Adds richness and fat, binding the fruit and nuts into a creamy dressing.
Whipped cream: Lightens the dressing with air, making it softer and smoother.