Name: Shrimp Salad
Ingredients: 2 cans shrimp; 2 bunches celery; 4 to 6 hard boiled eggs; salt; pepper; Durkee's salad dressing

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 ↓

Shrimp Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Chop one can of shrimp and leave the other can whole.
Chop the celery and hard-boiled eggs finely.
Season the chopped mixture with salt and pepper.

Serve

Before serving, place 1 tablespoon of Durkee's salad dressing and 3 whole shrimp on each dish of salad.

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).
Shrimp + celerytop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together812 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Shrimp + peppertop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,692 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylethanol (rose, floral).
Shrimp + eggtop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,829 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptenal (green).
Egg + peppertop 33% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together50,580 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Egg and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Shrimp: Provides the main protein and texture; the chopped and whole pieces give contrast.
Hard-boiled eggs: Add richness and body, binding the salad with their soft, creamy texture.
Celery: Adds crisp texture and fresh crunch that contrasts with the soft shrimp and eggs.
Durkee's salad dressing: Adds moisture, tang and creaminess to coat the salad.