Name: Raspberry Salad
Ingredients: 1 cup red raspberries; 1 cup diced pineapple; ½ cup English walnuts; Lettuce leaves; Mayonnaise or cooked dressing

Why it works: Walnut and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 491 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Raspberry Salad

Ingredients

Directions

In a bowl, combine the raspberries, diced pineapple, and chopped walnuts.
Serve the mixture on lettuce leaves.
Top with mayonnaise or cooked dressing as preferred.

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.

Walnut + lettucetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together491 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Pineapple + lettucetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together271 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Pineapple + walnuttop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together465 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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

What each ingredient does

Red raspberries: Provide tart flavor and juicy texture that brightens the salad.
Diced pineapple: Adds sweetness and juiciness that contrasts with the tart raspberries.
English walnuts: Add crunch and a mild, slightly bitter nutty flavor.
Mayonnaise or cooked dressing: Adds fat and creaminess that moistens the fruit and nuts.