Name: Endive Salad
Ingredients: fresh endives; ⅔ cup vinegar; ⅓ cup olive oil; 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce; 2 dashes Tabasco sauce; French mustard to taste; paprika to taste; salt to taste

Why it works: Endive and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 121 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Endive Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Wash and prepare the fresh endives.

Make the dressing

In a bowl, combine vinegar, olive oil, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco sauce, French mustard, paprika, and salt, then whisk the dressing until well mixed.

Dress and serve

Drizzle the dressing over the endives and toss to coat.

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.

Endive + mustardtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together121 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Endive + olivetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together209 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Olive + mustardtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,950 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Vinegar + olivetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,297 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Fresh endives: Provide the crisp, bitter leaves that form the body of the salad.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the oil.
Olive oil: Adds fat and a smooth mouthfeel that carries the other flavours.
Worcestershire sauce: Contributes savoury depth and umami to the dressing.
French mustard: Helps emulsify the oil and vinegar and adds sharp flavour.