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Salad

The True Lettuce Salad

A simple salad of fresh lettuce and endive seasoned with coarse sea salt, black pepper, oil, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and endive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 284 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

The True Lettuce Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the lettuce and endive thoroughly without handling them.

  2. Remove as much water as possible.

  3. In a large salad bowl, cross-cut the lettuce and endive a few times.

Dress and serve

  1. Add ¼ teaspoon of coarse sea salt and ⅛ teaspoon of black pepper.

  2. Drizzle with oil and vinegar to taste.

  3. Toss the salad immediately before serving.

  4. Keep it cool until ready to eat.

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.

  1. Lettuce + endivetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together284 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  2. Lettuce + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Endive + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together308 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Lettuce + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,370 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

Lettuce
Forms the bulk of the salad and provides its crisp, leafy texture.
Endive
Adds crunch and a slightly bitter note that contrasts with the dressing.
Oil
Carries flavour and coats the leaves, giving a smooth mouthfeel.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the oil.

The step that matters

Remove as much water as possible. Any water left on the leaves dilutes the dressing and stops oil and vinegar from clinging, so the salad turns watery and limp. Drying the leaves thoroughly keeps the dressing concentrated on the surface and the leaves crisp.

Swap the endive

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lettuce, pepper, vinegar):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Endivethe original
  3. Cucumberfits about as well
  4. Capsicumfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against lettuce, pepper, 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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