Name: Potato Salad
Ingredients: 2 cups cold boiled potatoes, cut into cubes; 1 cup olives, cut into large bits; 1 cup blanched English walnuts; 1 cup mayonnaise

Why it works: Olive and walnut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,087 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Potato Salad

Ingredients

2 cups cold boiled potatoes, cut into cubes
1 cup olives, cut into large bits
1 cup blanched English walnuts
1 cup mayonnaise

Directions

In a large bowl, combine the cold boiled potatoes, olives, and blanched walnuts.
Gently mix in the mayonnaise until everything is well coated.
Serve chilled.

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 + walnuttop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,087 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Potato + olivetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,458 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Potato + walnuttop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together342 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).