Name: Cottage-cheese Salad
Ingredients: 2 cups cottage cheese; 1 cup diced fresh vegetables (like celery, cucumbers, or green peppers); 1 cup cooked or canned vegetables; 1 cup fresh, dried, canned, or preserved fruits; ½ cup nuts; ½ cup olives; 1 cup cooked rice or diced potatoes; French dressing or mayonnaise; Garnish of sweet pickles and pimientos

Why it works: Olive and rice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,994 recipes. Both carry trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Cottage-cheese Salad

Ingredients

2 cups cottage cheese
1 cup diced fresh vegetables (like celery, cucumbers, or green peppers)
1 cup cooked or canned vegetables
1 cup fresh, dried, canned, or preserved fruits
½ cup nuts
½ cup olives
1 cup cooked rice or diced potatoes
French dressing or mayonnaise
Garnish of sweet pickles and pimientos

Directions

Make the salad

In a large bowl, combine cottage cheese with fresh and cooked vegetables, fruits, nuts, olives, and rice or potatoes.
Mix in your choice of French dressing or mayonnaise until well combined.

Shape and serve

Form the salad into balls or slices, or mold it in tiny cups.
Garnish with sweet pickles and pimientos before serving.

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.

Olive + ricetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together4,994 recipes

Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Celery + ricetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,169 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Celery + olivetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,667 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Nuts + ricetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together100 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Cottage cheese + olivetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together205 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

Cottage cheese: Forms the creamy, soft base that holds the other ingredients together.
French dressing or mayonnaise: Adds moisture and fat, binding the mixture and giving it a smooth texture.
Nuts: Add crunch and contrast to the soft cottage cheese.
Cooked or canned vegetables: Contribute bulk, moisture and mild flavor to the salad.
Cooked rice or diced potatoes: Add starch and body, making the salad more filling and firm when shaped.
Fresh or preserved fruits: Bring sweetness and brightness that balance the savory dressing and olives.

Swap the nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cottage cheese, celery, olive, rice):

Beansfits better
Walnutfits better
Almondfits better
Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cottage cheese, celery, olive, rice. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.