Name: Pineapple and Cheese Salad
Ingredients: sliced pineapple; 1 tablespoon mayonnaise; grated cream cheese; maraschino cherries (optional); lettuce leaves

Why it works: Pineapple and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 271 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Pineapple and Cheese Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Place sliced pineapple in the center of a lettuce leaf.
Pour 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise over the pineapple.
Sprinkle grated cream cheese on top.
Add maraschino cherries if desired.

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.

Pineapple + lettucetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together271 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Pineapple + cream cheesetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together250 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Cream cheese + lettucetop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together213 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Mayonnaise: Adds creamy richness and moisture to the pineapple.
Cream cheese: Adds a mild, creamy richness that balances the sweet pineapple.
Sliced pineapple: Provides sweetness and juicy acidity as the main base.