Name: Fish Salad
Ingredients: 2 cups cooked fish; 1 cup boiled potatoes, diced; ¼ head cabbage, finely chopped; a few pickles or cucumbers, finely chopped; dressing of your choice

Why it works: Cabbage and cucumber match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 722 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fish Salad

Ingredients

2 cups cooked fish
1 cup boiled potatoes, diced
¼ head cabbage, finely chopped
a few pickles or cucumbers, finely chopped
dressing of your choice

Directions

Combine the cooked fish, diced potatoes, chopped cabbage, and chopped pickles or cucumbers in a bowl.
Toss gently to mix the ingredients.
Serve with your choice of dressing.

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.

Cabbage + cucumbertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together722 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + cabbagetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together275 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + cucumbertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together481 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Fish + potatotop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together134 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Fish + cucumbertop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81 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

Cooked fish: Provides the main protein and substance of the salad.
Boiled potatoes: Adds body and a soft, starchy texture that bulks up the salad.
Cabbage: Contributes crisp texture and a fresh, mild bite.
Pickles or cucumbers: Adds crunch and acidity that brightens the other ingredients.