Name: Celeey and Ceeam Cheese Salad
Ingredients: ½ cup finely chopped celery; 1 package cream cheese; French dressing; paprika; radishes

Why it works: Celery and radish work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 101 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, which smells clove, smoky. The science ↓

Celeey and Ceeam Cheese Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Mix the finely chopped celery with the cream cheese.
Form the mixture into small balls.

Assemble and serve

Arrange the balls on lettuce leaves.
Pour French dressing over the salad.
Sprinkle with paprika and garnish with radishes cut into fancy shapes.

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 + radishtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together101 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).
Celery + cream cheesetop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together169 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).
Cream cheese + radishtop 38% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

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

What each ingredient does

Cream cheese: Binds the celery into a soft, moldable mixture that holds its shape as balls.
Celery: Adds crisp texture and fresh, mild flavor that contrasts with the rich cream cheese.
French dressing: Adds moisture, acidity and sweetness that season the cheese balls.