Name: Fish Salad
Ingredients: 1 white fish or trout, boiled and tender; 1 cup chopped celery; 1 cup chopped cabbage or lettuce

Why it works: Celery and cabbage are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,840 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fish Salad

Ingredients

1 white fish or trout, boiled and tender
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped cabbage or lettuce

Directions

Prepare

Boil the white fish or trout until tender.
Chop the fish finely.

Combine

In a bowl, combine the chopped fish with the chopped celery and cabbage or lettuce, then mix well to combine.

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 + cabbagetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,840 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together353 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Fish + cabbagetop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together44 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

White fish or trout: Forms the main body of the salad and gives it a flaky, tender texture.
Celery: Adds a crisp texture and a mild, fresh flavour.
Cabbage or lettuce: Adds crunch and bulk, with some moisture from the leaves.