Name: Shrimp Sauce
Ingredients: mayonnaise sauce; sliced cucumber; shredded lettuce; shrimp

Why it works: Cucumber and lettuce 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 ↓

Shrimp Sauce

Ingredients

mayonnaise sauce
sliced cucumber
shredded lettuce
shrimp

Directions

Stir the mayonnaise sauce into the shrimp.
Place the mixture in a salad bowl or dish.
Garnish with sliced cucumber and shredded lettuce.
Serve immediately.

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.

Cucumber + lettucetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,409 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Sauce + shrimptop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,423 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Lettuce + shrimptop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together430 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Cucumber + shrimptop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together386 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Sauce + lettucetop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,019 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).