Name: Rape Dressed with Vinegar and Mustard
Ingredients: rape (a type of leafy vegetable); ¼ cup vinegar; 2 teaspoons mustard

Why it works: Vinegar and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Rape Dressed with Vinegar and Mustard

Ingredients

rape (a type of leafy vegetable)
¼ cup vinegar
2 teaspoons mustard

Directions

Prepare

Wash and prepare the rape by removing any tough stems.

Dress and serve

In a bowl, mix the vinegar and mustard until well combined.
Drizzle the dressing over the prepared rape and toss to coat evenly.
Serve immediately as a side dish.

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.

Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Rape: Forms the leafy base of the salad, providing bulk and a crisp, fresh texture.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the leaves and balances the flavour of the dressing.
Mustard: Adds sharp flavour and helps the vinegar and oil-free dressing cling to the leaves.

“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.