Name: Cheese Salad
Ingredients: tart apples; lettuce; grated Swiss cheese

Why it works: Apple and swiss cheese work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Cheese Salad

Ingredients

tart apples
lettuce
grated Swiss cheese

Directions

Chop the tart apples.
Arrange the lettuce in a salad bowl.
Add the chopped apples to the bowl.
Sprinkle grated Swiss cheese over the 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.

Apple + swiss cheesetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Apple + lettucetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together515 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Lettuce + swiss cheesetop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together47 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).