Name: Ham Salad
Ingredients: 4 pounds boiled ham, chopped fine; ½ cup mustard; 1 tablespoon sugar; 4 raw eggs (optional); vinegar, to taste; ½ teaspoon pepper; chopped celery; celery, for garnish

Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Ham Salad

Ingredients

Directions

In a large bowl, combine the chopped ham and mustard.
Add the sugar and mix well.
If using, beat the raw eggs and add them to the mixture.
Moisten the salad with vinegar to your taste.
Stir in the pepper and chopped celery.
Garnish with additional celery before serving.

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.

Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,169 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,430 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Boiled ham: Forms the bulk of the salad and provides its savory, meaty base.
Mustard: Adds sharp, pungent flavor that cuts through the richness of the ham.
Sugar: Balances the sharpness of the mustard and vinegar with mild sweetness.
Raw eggs: Bind the mixture and add richness and body to the salad.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and moistens the salad.
Chopped celery: Adds crisp texture and a fresh, vegetal flavor.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, mustard, sugar, egg, vinegar, pepper):

Tarragonfits better
Capersfits about as well
Allspicefits about as well
Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, mustard, sugar, egg, vinegar, 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.