Name: Russian Salad
Ingredients: cooked vegetables (in equal proportion, cut into small dice, balls, or cubes); capers; pickled gherkins (cut into shreds); olives (for garnish); 3 parts oil; 1 part vinegar; salt (to taste); pepper (to taste)

Why it works: Capers and olive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,688 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Russian Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salad

Combine all sorts of cooked vegetables in a bowl.
Add capers and pickled gherkins.

Dress and serve

In a separate bowl, mix oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper to create the dressing.
Toss the vegetables in the dressing until well coated.
Arrange the salad on a serving dish.
Garnish with olives and any additional toppings like cold game, fowl, smoked salmon, or hard-boiled eggs.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Capers + olivetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,688 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Olive + vinegartop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,297 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
Olive + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together30,263 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Capers + peppertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,088 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked vegetables: Form the bulk of the salad and provide its main texture and body.
Oil: Carries flavour and coats the vegetables, giving a rich, smooth mouthfeel.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the oil.
Pickled gherkins: Contribute sharp, acidic bite and crunch to the mixed salad.
Capers: Add briny, sharp notes that stand out against the mild vegetables.