Name: Ham Salad
Ingredients: ½ pound ham, chopped fine; 3 good-sized pickles, chopped; 2 hard boiled eggs, chopped; salad dressing; ¼ teaspoon celery salt

Why it works: Ham and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,526 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Ham Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Chop the ham, pickles, and hard boiled eggs finely.
Mix the chopped ingredients with salad dressing.
Add a pinch of celery salt and combine well.

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.

Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,526 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ham + celerytop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,608 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).
Egg + celerytop 34% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,334 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Ham: Provides the main meaty body and savory flavor of the salad.
Pickles: Add acidity and a sharp tang that cuts through the richness.
Hard boiled eggs: Add softness, creaminess, and body to the chopped mixture.
Salad dressing: Adds moisture and binds the chopped ingredients together.