Name: Beet Salad
Ingredients: 1 pint cold beets, diced; Leaves of head lettuce; 4 pitted olives, chopped; 1 tablespoon capers, chopped; 1 gherkin, finely chopped; 1 cup mayonnaise dressing; Slices of hard-boiled eggs for garnish

Why it works: Lettuce and capers match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 372 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Beet Salad

Ingredients

1 pint cold beets, diced
Leaves of head lettuce
4 pitted olives, chopped
1 tablespoon capers, chopped
1 gherkin, finely chopped
1 cup mayonnaise dressing
Slices of hard-boiled eggs for garnish

Directions

Prepare

Dice enough cold beets to make 1 pint.
Heap the beets in the center of a platter.
Surround the beets with leaves of head lettuce.

Dress and serve

In a bowl, mix chopped olives, capers, gherkin, and mayonnaise dressing.
Pour the sauce over the beets.
Garnish with slices of hard-boiled eggs.

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.

Lettuce + caperstop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together372 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Olive + caperstop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,688 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Lettuce + olivetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,580 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Capers + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,311 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Lettuce + eggtop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,301 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Beets: Form the main body of the salad and provide the bulk of the dish.
Mayonnaise dressing: Adds fat and creaminess that coats the beets and binds the sauce.
Capers: Add a sharp, briny acidity that cuts through the richness of the dressing.
Olives: Contribute salty, briny flavor and a firm texture to the sauce.
Gherkin: Adds tangy acidity and crunch to the dressing.