Name: Endive Salad
Ingredients: 4 heads of endive; 2 green peppers; 2 tomatoes; 3 heads of celery; French dressing; 1 onion

Why it works: Tomato and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,377 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Endive Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Soak the endives in cold water for 1–2 hours, then drain.
Use only the hard centers of the endives and chop them finely.
Chop the green peppers, tomatoes, and celery.

Assemble and serve

Rub a bowl with the onion.
Mix the chopped green peppers, tomatoes, and celery with the chopped endives.
Serve the salad in the bowl, dressed with French dressing.

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.

Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,377 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Endive + celerytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together160 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,518 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 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

Endive: Provides the crisp, slightly bitter leaves that form the body of the salad.
Green peppers: Add crunch and fresh, mild flavor to the salad.
Tomatoes: Add juiciness and acidity that brighten the salad.
Celery: Adds crunch and a clean, fresh bite.
French dressing: Adds moisture, acidity and seasoning to coat the vegetables.