Name: Fish Salad
Ingredients: 1 lb cold white fish or salmon, skinless and boneless; 2 cups shredded lettuce; 2 cups shredded white celery (or chicory, endive, or sliced tomatoes if celery is unavailable); Salt to taste; Pepper to taste; Mayonnaise sauce (for serving); Hard-boiled egg, sliced (for garnish)

Why it works: Lettuce and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,033 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Fish Salad

Ingredients

1 lb cold white fish or salmon, skinless and boneless
2 cups shredded lettuce
2 cups shredded white celery (or chicory, endive, or sliced tomatoes if celery is unavailable)
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
Mayonnaise sauce (for serving)
Hard-boiled egg, sliced (for garnish)

Directions

Prepare

Shred the cold fish and place it in a large mixing bowl.
Add the shredded lettuce and celery to the bowl.
Mix all ingredients carefully, adding salt and pepper to taste.

Serve

Arrange the mixture neatly in a salad bowl.
Pour mayonnaise sauce over the salad.
Garnish with slices of hard-boiled egg.

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 + celerytop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,033 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Lettuce + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,037 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Fish + lettucetop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together196 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Lettuce + saucetop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,019 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

White fish or salmon: Provides the main body and flaky texture of the salad.
Mayonnaise sauce: Adds richness and moisture, coating the salad with fat and creaminess.
Lettuce: Adds crisp, fresh texture and bulk to the salad.
Celery: Adds crunch and a mild, fresh flavour to the mixture.