Name: Salade a L'egyptienne- -egyptian Salad
Ingredients: 2 ears of cold boiled corn; 1 cup cold boiled rice; 1 small sweet red pepper, chopped; ½ cup mayonnaise dressing; Lettuce leaves; 2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped; Boneless anchovies

Why it works: Corn and rice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 933 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Salade a L'egyptienne- -egyptian Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Split the corn kernels lengthwise and remove the interior with a table knife.
Mix the corn with the cold boiled rice and chopped sweet red pepper.
Add mayonnaise dressing and mix well.

Serve

Serve the mixture on lettuce leaves.
Garnish with chopped eggs and boneless anchovies.

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.

Corn + ricetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together933 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Rice + lettucetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together520 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Pepper + lettucetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,037 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Corn + lettucetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together270 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,324 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold boiled corn: Provides sweet, tender kernels that give the salad its main body and texture.
Cold boiled rice: Adds bulk and a soft, starchy texture that soaks up some of the dressing.
Mayonnaise dressing: Adds moisture and richness, binding the salad together and carrying flavour.
Hard-boiled eggs: Adds a firm, mild protein texture and richness as a garnish.