Name: Pea and Cucumber Salad
Ingredients: 1 can extra sifted peas; 3 medium-sized cucumbers; boiled salad dressing; crisp lettuce

Why it works: Cucumber and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,409 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pea and Cucumber Salad

Ingredients

1 can extra sifted peas
3 medium-sized cucumbers
boiled salad dressing
crisp lettuce

Directions

Prepare

Drain the can of peas.
Dice the cucumbers and chill them in cold water.
Drain the cucumbers well.

Assemble and serve

Combine the peas and cucumbers.
Toss together with boiled salad dressing.
Serve on crisp lettuce.

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.

Cucumber + lettucetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,409 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Peas + lettucetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,293 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Peas + cucumbertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together629 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Peas: Provide the main body and mild sweetness of the salad.
Cucumbers: Add cool, crisp moisture and a fresh texture to the salad.
Boiled salad dressing: Coats the vegetables and adds richness and tang to the salad.