Name: Pineapple Salad
Ingredients: 1 ripe pineapple; ½ cup English walnuts, chopped; ½ cup celery, chopped; ¼ cup orange, diced; ¼ cup apple, diced; ½ cup mayonnaise

Why it works: Pineapple and apple match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 530 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Pineapple Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pineapple

Cut off the bottom end of the pineapple, leaving the green end intact.
Scoop out the inside of the pineapple.

Make and serve the salad

Mix the pineapple flesh with walnuts, celery, orange, apple, and mayonnaise.
Return the mixture to the hollowed pineapple hull.
Place the pineapple on a plate with some salad spilling out.

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.

Pineapple + appletop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together530 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Walnut + celerytop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together852 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Pineapple + orangetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,664 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Orange + appletop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,230 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Celery + orangetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together452 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

Pineapple: Supplies the sweet, juicy flesh and the hollow shell that holds the salad.
Mayonnaise: Adds moisture and richness, binding the fruit and vegetables together.
English walnuts: Add crunch and a toasty, nutty flavor that contrasts with the soft fruit.
Celery: Adds crisp texture and a fresh, mildly savory note.
Apple: Adds crisp texture and a light tartness that balances the sweetness.
Orange: Adds juicy brightness and acidity that lifts the creamy dressing.