Name: Bean Salad
Ingredients: 2 cups cold boiled string beans; ¼ cup finely chopped onion; ¼ cup finely chopped celery; French or cream salad dressing to taste

Why it works: Beans and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,159 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, which smells clove, smoky. The science ↓

Bean Salad

Ingredients

2 cups cold boiled string beans
¼ cup finely chopped onion
¼ cup finely chopped celery
French or cream salad dressing to taste

Directions

In a bowl, combine the cold boiled string beans, onion, and celery.
Drizzle with French or cream salad dressing and toss gently to coat.

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.

Beans + celerytop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,159 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).
Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,518 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Beans + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,242 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + creamtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together10,827 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Celery + creamtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,863 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

Onion and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,827 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

String beans: Form the bulk of the salad and provide its main texture and body.
Onion: Adds sharpness and aroma that brightens the mild beans.
Celery: Adds crisp crunch that contrasts with the soft cooked beans.
Salad dressing: Adds fat, acidity and seasoning, and coats the vegetables with flavour.