Name: Nut, Celery and Apple Salad
Ingredients: 1 cup celery, finely chopped; 1 cup apples, diced; ½ cup walnut meats, chopped; ½ cup white grapes, skinned and chopped (optional); mayonnaise dressing or lettuce for serving

Why it works: Apple and grape match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,659 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Nut, Celery and Apple Salad

Ingredients

1 cup celery, finely chopped
1 cup apples, diced
½ cup walnut meats, chopped
½ cup white grapes, skinned and chopped (optional)
mayonnaise dressing or lettuce for serving

Directions

In a bowl, combine the celery, apples, and walnut meats.
If desired, add the white grapes.
Serve with mayonnaise dressing or on a bed of lettuce.

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.

Apple + grapetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,659 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Walnut + lettucetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together491 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Celery + lettucetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,033 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Celery + walnuttop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together852 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Walnut + grapetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,427 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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

What each ingredient does

Celery: Provides crisp, fresh texture and a mild, vegetal crunch.
Apples: Adds crisp texture and natural sweetness with a touch of tartness.
Walnut meats: Contribute crunch and a rich, nutty flavor that balances the fruit.
White grapes: Add juicy sweetness and moisture to the salad.

Swap the grape

The recipe marks grape as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, apple, walnut, meat, lettuce):

Avocadofits better
Figfits better
Cherryfits about as well
Grapethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, apple, walnut, meat, lettuce. 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.