Name: Shrimp Salad
Ingredients: 1 can of shrimp; 2 tomatoes; 2 hard-boiled eggs; 1 cup watercress; salad dressing to taste

Why it works: Tomato and watercress work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 158 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Shrimp Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Remove shrimp from the can and wash thoroughly in cold water.
Chop the tomatoes and hard-boiled eggs.

Assemble and serve

In a bowl, combine shrimp, tomatoes, eggs, and watercress.
Add salad dressing and mix well.

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.

Tomato + watercresstop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together158 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Shrimp + tomatotop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,689 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Shrimp + watercresstop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Egg + watercresstop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together638 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Shrimp + eggtop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,829 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptenal (green).