Name: Pea Salad
Ingredients: 2 cups sifted canned peas; 4 tablespoons lemon juice; ½ cup diced cream cheese; ½ cup mayonnaise dressing; ½ cup unsalted peanuts

Why it works: Peas and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,005 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Pea Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Select a good grade of peas.
Cut the cream cheese into small square pieces to match the size of the peas.
Shell fresh roasted peanuts and cut them into pieces the same size as the cheese cubes.

Assemble and serve

Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix with lemon juice and mayonnaise.
Serve on a lettuce leaf.

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.

Peas + lemontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,005 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Peas + peanuttop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Cream cheese + peanuttop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together163 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Lemon + peanuttop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together341 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Peas + cream cheesetop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together44 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Canned peas: Form the main bulk of the salad and provide its mild, sweet flavor.
Cream cheese: Adds richness and a soft, creamy texture that contrasts with the peas.
Mayonnaise dressing: Binds the ingredients together and adds moisture and fat to the salad.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the richness of the dressing.
Unsalted peanuts: Add crunch and a toasty, nutty flavor against the soft ingredients.