Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Lettuce
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash the lettuce thoroughly and remove any tough outer leaves.
Tear the lettuce into bite-sized pieces.
Dress and serve
In a bowl, combine the lettuce with vinegar, sugar, oil, and cream as desired.
Season with coarse sea salt to taste.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Lettuce + vinegartop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,370 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,806 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Vinegar + creamtop 25% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,064 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Lettuce + creamtop 26% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,121 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Lettuce
- Forms the bulk of the salad and provides its crisp, fresh texture.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the richness of the oil and cream.
- Oil
- Coats the leaves with fat, adding smoothness and carrying flavor across the greens.
- Cream
- Adds richness and a mellow body that softens the sharpness of the vinegar.
The step that matters
Serve immediately. Dressed lettuce wilts and loses crispness as the acid and salt draw water out of the leaves, so it is best eaten soon after tossing.
Swap the lettuce
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, sugar, cream):
- Mustardfits better
- Horseradishfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Lettucethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar, cream. 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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