Name: Peanut Salad
Ingredients: ½ head small solid cabbage; 1 small bunch celery; 3 green cucumbers; 5 cents' worth shelled peanuts; 1 teaspoon celery seed; pepper to taste; ¼ teaspoon salt; mayonnaise for serving

Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Peanut Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Chop the cabbage and celery finely.
Slice the cucumbers.

Combine and serve

In a bowl, combine the cabbage, celery, cucumbers, and shelled peanuts.
Add celery seed, pepper, and salt to taste.
Serve 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.

Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,081 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Cabbage + cucumbertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together722 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Cabbage + celerytop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,840 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Celery + cucumbertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,745 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage: Provides the crisp, bulky body that forms the base of the salad.
Cucumbers: Add moisture and a cool, crunchy texture to the salad.
Shelled peanuts: Add crunch and a rich, nutty flavor that contrasts the vegetables.
Mayonnaise: Adds fat and creaminess, binding the vegetables and carrying the seasoning.