Name: Tuna Fish Salad
Ingredients: 1 can of tuna fish; 1 tablespoon onion, finely chopped; 2 tablespoons green peppers, finely chopped; salt to taste; ½ cup mayonnaise; lettuce leaves or ripe tomatoes for serving

Why it works: Onion and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,562 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tuna Fish Salad

Ingredients

1 can of tuna fish
1 tablespoon onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons green peppers, finely chopped
salt to taste
½ cup mayonnaise
lettuce leaves or ripe tomatoes for serving

Directions

Chop the tuna fish, onion, and green peppers very fine and mix well.
Add salt to taste and about ½ cup of mayonnaise.
Serve on lettuce leaves or stuff into ripe tomatoes.

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.

Onion + lettucetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,562 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + lettucetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,037 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 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).
Fish + oniontop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,924 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Tuna fish: Provides the main body and protein of the salad.
Mayonnaise: Adds moisture and richness, binding the chopped ingredients together.
Onion: Adds sharp, aromatic flavour that brightens the tuna.
Green peppers: Adds crisp texture and fresh, slightly bitter flavour.