Name: Nut Salad
Ingredients: Lettuce leaves; Ground nuts (preferably pecan); Fresh cucumbers; Salad dressing or olive oil

Why it works: Lettuce and cucumber match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,409 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Nut Salad

Ingredients

Lettuce leaves
Ground nuts (preferably pecan)
Fresh cucumbers
Salad dressing or olive oil

Directions

Wash the lettuce leaves thoroughly.
Place the ground nuts over the lettuce.
Add finely cut fresh cucumbers on top.
Serve with salad dressing or olive oil.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + cucumbertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,409 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Lettuce + olivetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,580 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Cucumber + olivetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,611 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
Lettuce + nutstop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together174 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Nuts + cucumbertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together40 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).