Why it works: Mustard and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,356 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Lettuce Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the egg base
Mash the yolks of the hard-boiled eggs with the butter until smooth.
Chop the egg whites finely and mix them with the yolk mixture.
Make the dressing
In a separate bowl, beat an egg with the vinegar, then add sugar, mustard, salt, and cayenne pepper.
Boil the vinegar mixture, then combine it with the egg and butter mixture.
Serve
Wash and dry the lettuce leaves, then slice them into 1-inch pieces.
Just before serving, pour the cooled dressing over the sliced lettuce.
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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Mustard + lettucetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,356 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,430 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pepper + lettucetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,037 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,814 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Yolks enrich and bind the butter into a smooth, creamy base; chopped whites add body.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture to the mashed yolks.
- Vinegar
- Provides the sharp acidity that defines the dressing and thickens when heated with egg.
- Sugar
- Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with a touch of sweetness.
- Mustard
- Adds a sharp, pungent flavour that rounds out the tang of the vinegar.
The step that matters
Boiling the beaten egg and vinegar mixture. Heat thickens the beaten egg in the vinegar. Keep stirring while it boils so the egg cooks evenly into a smooth dressing rather than forming lumps or curdling.
Swap the lettuce
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, vinegar, sugar, mustard, pepper):
- Horseradishfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Shallotfits about as well
- Lettucethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, vinegar, sugar, mustard, pepper. 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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