Name: Sardine Salad
Ingredients: 1 can sardines; 2 hard-boiled egg yolks; Lettuce leaves; Mayonnaise

Why it works: Egg and lettuce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 30% of all ingredient pairs, and 3,301 recipes mention both. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Sardine Salad

Ingredients

1 can sardines
2 hard-boiled egg yolks
Lettuce leaves
Mayonnaise

Directions

Make the filling

Mash the yolks of the hard-boiled eggs.
Mix the sardines with the mashed yolks.

Assemble and serve

Arrange the mixture in nests made of lettuce leaves.
Serve with mayonnaise.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Egg + lettucetop 30% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together3,301 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Sardines: Provide the main protein and rich, savory flavor of the salad.
Hard-boiled egg yolks: Mash into a creamy binder that holds the sardines together and adds richness.
Mayonnaise: Adds moisture and fat, giving the salad a smooth, creamy finish.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.