Name: Tomato Baskets with Celery
Ingredients: tomatoes; celery stalks; lettuce leaves; Boiled Salad Dressing, No. 1 or mayonnaise

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 ↓

Tomato Baskets with Celery

Ingredients

tomatoes
celery stalks
lettuce leaves
Boiled Salad Dressing, No. 1 or mayonnaise

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes as directed in the previous recipe.
Split the celery stalks lengthwise until they are about the thickness of straws.
Cut the celery into half-inch lengths.
Fill the tomato baskets with the celery.
Serve on lettuce leaves with Boiled Salad Dressing or mayonnaise.

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).
Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,377 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Tomato + lettucetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,655 recipes

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