Name: Spanish Salad
Ingredients: 1 head of lettuce; 2 tomatoes, peeled and diced; 1 cucumber, peeled and sliced thin; 1 small green pepper, chopped fine; French dressing

Why it works: Lettuce and cucumber match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,409 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Spanish Salad

Ingredients

1 head of lettuce
2 tomatoes, peeled and diced
1 cucumber, peeled and sliced thin
1 small green pepper, chopped fine
French dressing

Directions

Prepare

Wash and dry the inner heart of the lettuce.

Fill and serve

Separate the leaves and fill them with the prepared Spanish salad.
In a bowl, combine the diced tomatoes, sliced cucumber, and chopped green pepper.
Pour French dressing over the salad mixture.
Chill the salad on ice before serving.

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 + cucumbertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,409 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + cucumbertop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,405 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Lettuce + tomatotop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,655 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,037 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

Lettuce: Forms crisp leaves that hold the salad filling.
Tomatoes: Add moisture and a fresh acidity to the salad.
Cucumber: Adds cool moisture and a crisp texture.
Green pepper: Adds crunch and a sharp, fresh flavor.
French dressing: Adds fat and acidity that carry the flavor of the vegetables.