Name: Macedoine Salad
Ingredients: cold cooked peas; carrots; beets; string beans; olive oil; vinegar; seasonings; garlic (optional)

Why it works: Olive and garlic are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 25,665 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

Macedoine Salad

Ingredients

Directions

In a large bowl, combine cold cooked peas, diced carrots, beets, and string beans.
In a separate bowl, mix olive oil and seasonings.
Pour the oil mixture over the vegetables and toss until coated.
Add vinegar and toss again.
For extra flavor, rub the bowl with a clove of garlic before serving.

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.

Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,665 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Carrot + beanstop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,443 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Beans + olivetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,470 recipes

Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Peas + beanstop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together949 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Beans + garlictop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,935 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

Swap the garlic

The recipe marks garlic as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peas, carrot, beans, olive, vinegar):

Cuminfits better
Parsleyfits about as well
Tarragonfits about as well
Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, carrot, beans, olive, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.