Name: Fish Salad
Ingredients: 1 white fish or trout, cooked and flaked; 1 cup chopped celery; 1 cup chopped cabbage

Why it works: Celery and cabbage are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,840 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fish Salad

Ingredients

1 white fish or trout, cooked and flaked
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped cabbage

Directions

Prepare

Flake the cooked white fish or trout.
Chop the celery and cabbage finely.

Assemble

Combine the flaked fish, chopped celery, and chopped cabbage in a bowl.

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.

Celery + cabbagetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,840 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Fish + celerytop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together353 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Fish + cabbagetop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together44 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

White fish or trout: Provides the main protein and flaky texture of the salad.
Celery: Adds crisp texture and a fresh, mild crunch to the salad.
Cabbage: Adds crunch and bulk, holding its texture well in a cold salad.