Name: Onion and Apple Salad
Ingredients: 1 Spanish onion; 2 apples; French dressing; chopped parsley or sweet pepper

Why it works: Onion and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 25,843 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Onion and Apple Salad

Ingredients

1 Spanish onion
2 apples
French dressing
chopped parsley or sweet pepper

Directions

Prepare

Slice the center of the Spanish onion very thin.
Pile up the slices and cut across to divide them finer.

Assemble

Combine the onion with twice as much sliced apple, leaving the red skins on the apples for garnish.
Add French dressing and chopped parsley or sweet pepper.
Mayonnaise or cooked dressing can also be used.

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.

Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Onion + appletop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,206 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Apple + parsleytop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together612 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Spanish onion: Provides the main sharp, crisp body of the salad.
Apples: Add crisp texture and mild sweetness that balances the onion's sharpness.
French dressing: Adds moisture and acidity that carries the flavor through the salad.