Name: Turnip-and-asparagus Salad
Ingredients: cooked asparagus tips; French dressing; shredded lettuce; radishes; new beets; vinegar

Why it works: Asparagus and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 313 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Turnip-and-asparagus Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Arrange cups on shredded lettuce.
Fill cups with cooked asparagus tips that have been marinated in French dressing for at least 1 hour.
Substitute mayonnaise dressing if desired, but add it just before serving.
Garnish with radishes cut to resemble flowers.
If using new beets, soak them in vinegar for several hours, then drain.

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.

Asparagus + lettucetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together313 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Lettuce + radishtop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together58 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Asparagus + radishtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).
Radish + vinegartop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together508 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Lettuce + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,370 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).