Why it works: Lettuce and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,037 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Lettuce Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the lettuce
Pick over the lettuce, selecting the crisp, young leaves.
Wash the leaves and soak them in ice water for 15 minutes.
Line a salad dish with a napkin.
Tear the larger leaves into pieces and fill the salad bowl with them.
Gather the corners of the napkin, shake lightly, and turn the lettuce into the bowl.
Dress and serve
Season with pepper, salt, sugar, vinegar, and oil.
Toss well with a salad fork and spoon, and serve immediately.
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.
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Lettuce + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,037 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,814 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Lettuce + vinegartop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,370 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,806 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Lettuce + sugartop 29% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,486 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Crisp young lettuce leaves
- Provide the crisp texture and fresh base of the salad.
- Oil
- Adds fat and richness, coating the leaves and carrying flavour.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the oil.
- Sugar
- Adds a touch of sweetness to balance the vinegar.
The step that matters
Dry the lettuce before dressing. Wet leaves dilute the dressing and make it slide off, so the seasoning ends up pooled at the bottom of the bowl. Shaking the leaves in the napkin removes surface water so the oil and vinegar cling to them.
Swap the lettuce
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, sugar, vinegar):
- Capsicumfits better
- Mustardfits better
- Cabbagefits better
- Lettucethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, sugar, vinegar. 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.
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