Name: Egg and Sausage Salad
Ingredients: 3 hard-boiled eggs; Bologna sausage (sliced to match egg slices); finely shredded lettuce; oil; vinegar; coarse sea salt; black pepper

Why it works: Lettuce and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,037 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Egg and Sausage Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Hard boil the eggs and slice them.
Slice the Bologna sausage to match the number of egg slices.

Assemble and dress

Place a slice of egg on each piece of sausage.
Arrange them on a bed of finely shredded lettuce.
Dress the lettuce with oil and vinegar, and season with salt and pepper.

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.

Lettuce + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,037 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Lettuce + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,370 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg + lettucetop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,301 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Egg + vinegartop 33% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together12,922 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and vinegar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,922 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

Eggs: Provide the main protein and a creamy, mild flavour as the topping layer.
Bologna sausage: Adds savoury, salty flavour and a firmer, meaty bite beneath the egg.
Finely shredded lettuce: Forms a crisp, fresh bed that adds texture and moisture to the salad.
Oil: Carries flavour and adds richness, coating the lettuce evenly.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the rich fat.