Name: Fish Salad
Ingredients: fresh white fish or trout; cabbage; celery or lettuce; salt; pepper

Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fish Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Boil the fish or trout until cooked, then chop it coarsely.
Combine the chopped fish with an equal amount of chopped cabbage, celery, or lettuce.
Season the mixture with salt and pepper to taste.
Garnish with tender leaves from the heart of the lettuce.

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 + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,840 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Fish + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,948 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Fish + celerytop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together353 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Fresh white fish or trout: Provides the main protein and body of the salad, becoming flaky once cooked.
Cabbage: Adds crisp texture and bulk that contrasts with the soft fish.
Celery or lettuce: Adds crunch and freshness, giving the salad a light, crisp bite.