Name: Ham Salad
Ingredients: 1 cup cold boiled potatoes, diced; 1 cup chopped celery; 1 cup lean boiled ham, minced; ½ teaspoon celery salt; ½ cup mayonnaise or other dressing

Why it works: Potato and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,047 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Ham Salad

Ingredients

1 cup cold boiled potatoes, diced
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup lean boiled ham, minced
½ teaspoon celery salt
½ cup mayonnaise or other dressing

Directions

Make the salad

In a bowl, combine the cold boiled potatoes, chopped celery, minced ham, and celery salt.
Mix in the mayonnaise, reserving a little to spread on top.

Serve

Spread the salad on a cold platter and cover with the reserved 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.

Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,047 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Celery + hamtop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,608 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).
Potato + hamtop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together127 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).