Name: Apple Salad
Ingredients: Red or green apples; Pecans; Celery; Cooked salad dressing

Why it works: Apple and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,155 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, which smells clove, smoky. The science ↓

Apple Salad

Ingredients

Red or green apples
Pecans
Celery
Cooked salad dressing

Directions

Select medium-sized smooth apples and polish them.
Cut off a thick slice at the stem end.
Carefully dig out the inside of the apple without leaking the bottom.
In a bowl, combine the dug-out portion of the apple with chopped celery and pecans.
Chop the mixture into pieces about the size of navy beans.
Add enough salad dressing to moisten the mixture.
Pack the mixture into the apple shell.
Replace the slice of apple on top.
Set the apple on a salad plate and garnish with nasturtium or geranium leaves.

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.

Apple + celerytop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,155 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).
Apple + pecanstop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together391 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Pecans + celerytop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together219 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).