Name: Celery and Apple Salad
Ingredients: 1 bunch tender white celery; 2 tart apples; Salt and pepper to taste; Mayonnaise dressing; Lettuce leaves for serving; Celery leaves or pomegranate seeds for garnish

Why it works: Celery and lettuce 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 ↓

Celery and Apple Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Cut the celery into small dice, including the heart and leaves.
Season the celery with salt and pepper.
Slice the apples into very small, thin slices, using an equal quantity as the celery.

Assemble and serve

Mix the celery and apples together.
Add mayonnaise dressing until it reaches a good consistency.
Serve on lettuce leaves.
Garnish with celery leaves or pomegranate seeds.

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.

Celery + lettucetop 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).
Pepper + lettucetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,037 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Celery + appletop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,155 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).
Apple + lettucetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together515 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Celery: Provides the crisp, crunchy texture that forms the bulk of the salad.
Apples: Add a light sweetness and tartness that balances the savory dressing.
Mayonnaise dressing: Adds fat and moisture that bind the diced celery and apple together.