Name: Cheese Salad
Ingredients: 8 ounces cream cheese; ¼ cup cream; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; ¼ teaspoon paprika; 6 olives, finely chopped; 2 tablespoons pimentos, cut into strips; Lettuce leaves; Mayonnaise

Why it works: Olive and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,580 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Cheese Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cheese mixture

Mash the cream cheese in a bowl.
Moisten with cream and season with salt and paprika.
Add the chopped olives and pimentos, mixing well.
Press the mixture into the original shape of the cheese.

Chill and serve

Let it stand for 2 hours.
Cut into slices and serve on lettuce leaves with mayonnaise.

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.

Olive + lettucetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,580 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Cream cheese + olivetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,003 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).
Cream cheese + creamtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,087 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).
Cream cheese + lettucetop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together213 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Cream + olivetop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,206 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Cream cheese: Forms the base of the salad and sets into a firm, sliceable mass.
Cream: Adds moisture and softens the cream cheese for a smoother texture.
Olives: Contribute salty, savory flavor and texture through the cheese.
Pimentos: Add sweetness, color and a mild flavor to the mixture.