Name: Vegetable Salad
Ingredients: 1 cold cooked beet, cut into ¼-inch cubes; 1 cold cooked carrot, cut into ¼-inch cubes; 1 cold cooked potato, cut into ¼-inch cubes; a few cold green string beans, cut into pieces; mayonnaise dressing; crisp leaves from 1 head of lettuce

Why it works: Beans and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 500 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Vegetable Salad

Ingredients

1 cold cooked beet, cut into ¼-inch cubes
1 cold cooked carrot, cut into ¼-inch cubes
1 cold cooked potato, cut into ¼-inch cubes
a few cold green string beans, cut into pieces
mayonnaise dressing
crisp leaves from 1 head of lettuce

Directions

Prepare and dress

Cut the beet, carrot, potato, and string beans into ¼-inch cubes.
Mix the vegetables with mayonnaise dressing.

Serve

Garnish with crisp leaves of lettuce.

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 + lettucetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together500 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,107 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Carrot + beanstop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,443 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Potato + beanstop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together655 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Carrot + lettucetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together976 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Beet: Adds color and a mild, sweet earthy flavor to the salad.
Carrot: Adds sweetness, color and a firm, crisp-tender bite.
Potato: Provides starchy bulk that soaks up dressing and gives a soft texture.
Mayonnaise dressing: Adds fat and moisture, coating the vegetables and carrying flavor.