Name: Roman Salad
Ingredients: Coss lettuce; 1 small onion, finely chopped; 1 teaspoon honey (or to taste); 2 tablespoons vinegar

Why it works: Lettuce and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,562 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Roman Salad

Ingredients

Coss lettuce
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon honey (or to taste)
2 tablespoons vinegar

Directions

Prepare

Thoroughly wash, trim, and dry the lettuce.
Separate the lettuce into small pieces.

Dress the salad

Season the lettuce with vinegar.
Sweeten the vinegar to taste with honey.
Sprinkle the chopped onion over the salad.

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 + oniontop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,562 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Honey + vinegartop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,586 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,226 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Lettuce + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,370 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Lettuce + honeytop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together228 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).