Name: Vegetable Salad
Ingredients: 1 boiled cauliflower; 1 head lettuce; 1 bunch boiled asparagus; 1 bunch chopped celery; 2 boiled potatoes, sliced; ½ cup boiled peas; ½ onion, sliced thin; 1 teaspoon salt; ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper

Why it works: Cauliflower and asparagus match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 163 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Vegetable Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Chop the vegetables, except for the peas.
Mix all the chopped vegetables together.
Serve on lettuce leaves with French dressing.

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.

Cauliflower + asparagustop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together163 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Lettuce + asparagustop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together313 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Cauliflower + lettucetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together151 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Asparagus + peastop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together808 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes: Adds body and starch so the salad feels substantial rather than watery.
Asparagus: Contributes tender texture and a fresh, grassy flavour.
Cauliflower: Provides firm, crisp bulk that holds its shape when tossed with dressing.
Celery: Adds crunch and a clean, slightly bitter note that cuts through richness.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cauliflower, lettuce, asparagus, celery, potato, peas, pepper):

Spinachfits better
Broccolifits better
Endivefits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cauliflower, lettuce, asparagus, celery, potato, peas, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.