Name: Mock Chicken Salad
Ingredients: 2 cups cold pork or veal; 3 hard boiled eggs; 1 cup diced celery; Mayonnaise

Why it works: Pork and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,572 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, which smells clove, smoky. The science ↓

Mock Chicken Salad

Ingredients

2 cups cold pork or veal
3 hard boiled eggs
1 cup diced celery
Mayonnaise

Directions

Prepare

Trim the cold boiled or roasted pork, removing any fat, then chop or dice it.

Assemble and serve

In a bowl, combine the chopped meat, finely chopped eggs, and diced celery. Toss the mixture lightly until well combined.
Dress the salad with mayonnaise and garnish with fringed celery.

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.

Pork + celerytop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,572 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).
Pork + eggtop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,387 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Egg + celerytop 34% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,334 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).