Name: Onion Salad
Ingredients: 1 cup toasted bread crumbs; 1 cup white Spanish onions, chopped; 2 hard boiled eggs, chopped; 1 dill pickle, chopped; Salt and pepper to taste; Lettuce leaves for serving; Salad dressing; Sprig of parsley for garnish

Why it works: Dill and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 669 recipes. Both carry p-mentha-1,3,8-triene, which smells camphor, herbal. The science ↓

Onion Salad

Ingredients

Directions

In a bowl, combine toasted bread crumbs, chopped onions, chopped hard boiled eggs, and chopped dill pickle.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Serve the mixture on lettuce leaves.
Drizzle salad dressing on top and garnish with a sprig of parsley.

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.

Dill + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together669 recipes

Shared aroma: p-mentha-1,3,8-triene (camphor, herbal).
Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,630 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,483 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Dill + lettucetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together159 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Toasted bread crumbs: Adds body and a toasty bulk that soaks up the dressing.
White spanish onions: Provide the sharp, aromatic bite that defines the salad.
Hard boiled eggs: Add richness and a soft, creamy texture to the mix.
Dill pickle: Contributes acidity and a tangy crunch that balances the eggs.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, egg, dill, pepper, lettuce, parsley):

Spinachfits better
Shallotfits better
Beetrootfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, egg, dill, pepper, lettuce, parsley. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.