Name: Turkey Salad
Ingredients: 10-pound turkey; 3 bunches of celery; 6 pickles; 1 cup Durkee’s salad dressing; ½ cup vinegar; 1 teaspoon salt

Why it works: Turkey and celery work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 431 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Turkey Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the turkey

Boil the turkey until fully cooked, then remove from heat.
Pull the turkey apart and chop it finely.

Make the salad

Chop the celery and pickles finely, then mix them with the turkey.
In a bowl, combine the Durkee’s salad dressing, vinegar, and salt, then stir well.
Mix the dressing into the prepared turkey mixture thoroughly.

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.

Turkey + celerytop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together431 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Celery + vinegartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,627 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Turkey + vinegartop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together139 recipes

Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Turkey: Forms the bulk of the salad and provides its main protein and savory flavor.
Celery: Adds crisp texture and a fresh, mild crunch to the chopped turkey.
Pickles: Add acidity and tang that brighten the richness of the turkey.
Durkee’s salad dressing: Provides moisture and a creamy, tangy binding for the mixture.