Name: Aspaeagus Salad in Lemon Rings
Ingredients: cooked asparagus stalks; French dressing; 1 lemon; lettuce leaves

Why it works: Asparagus and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 313 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Aspaeagus Salad in Lemon Rings

Ingredients

cooked asparagus stalks
French dressing
1 lemon
lettuce leaves

Directions

Chill the cooked asparagus stalks and marinate them with French dressing.
Remove a thick slice from both ends of the lemon and cut it into ⅓ inch slices, removing the pulp to leave rings.
Place three or four asparagus stalks in each lemon ring.
Arrange the lemon rings on lettuce leaves and pour a little more dressing over them.

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.

Asparagus + lettucetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together313 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Asparagus + lemontop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together704 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Lemon + lettucetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,559 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).