Name: Fish Salad
Ingredients: cold white fish or salmon, shredded; ¼ cup lettuce, washed and shredded; ¼ cup white celery, cleaned and shredded (or endive or sliced tomatoes if celery is unavailable); salt, to taste; pepper, to taste; mayonnaise dressing; hard-boiled egg, sliced, for garnish; small cress or cresses, for garnish

Why it works: Lettuce and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,033 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Fish Salad

Ingredients

cold white fish or salmon, shredded
¼ cup lettuce, washed and shredded
¼ cup white celery, cleaned and shredded (or endive or sliced tomatoes if celery is unavailable)
salt, to taste
pepper, to taste
mayonnaise dressing
hard-boiled egg, sliced, for garnish
small cress or cresses, for garnish

Directions

Prepare

Skin, bone, and shred the cold fish.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the fish, lettuce, and celery.
Mix carefully, adding salt and pepper to taste.

Assemble and serve

Arrange the mixture in a salad bowl.
Pour mayonnaise dressing over the salad.
Garnish with sliced hard-boiled egg and small cress.

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 + celerytop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,033 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Lettuce + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,037 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Fish + lettucetop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together196 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Fish + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,948 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold white fish or salmon: Forms the main body of the salad as flaked, tender pieces.
Mayonnaise dressing: Adds richness and moisture, coating the fish and vegetables.