Name: Pear and Nut Salad
Ingredients: 100 raisins; 1 cup cream (thin); 100 gill bread and nut margarine; 100 oranges; 2 tablespoons sugar; 2 tablespoons scalloped tomatoes; 1 cup hot milk; 2 tablespoons lima beans

Why it works: Tomato and lima beans work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 131 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pear and Nut Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Soak 100 raisins in warm water until plump.
In a bowl, combine the soaked raisins, 1 cup of thin cream, and 100 gill of bread and nut margarine.
Add 100 oranges, peeled and segmented.
Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of sugar and mix gently.
Serve with 2 tablespoons of scalloped tomatoes and 1 cup of hot milk on the side.
Garnish with 2 tablespoons of lima beans.

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.

Tomato + lima beanstop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together131 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Orange + tomatotop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together689 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Bread + tomatotop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,013 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, bread, orange, sugar, tomato, milk, lima beans):

Vanillafits better
Lemonfits better
Cherryfits better
Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, bread, orange, sugar, tomato, milk, lima beans. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.