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Salad

Salads

A salad of lettuce, cresses, celery, and onions dressed with pepper, vinegar, coarse sea salt, mustard, and oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and mustard 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 ↓

Salads

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and prepare the raw vegetables, such as lettuce, cresses, celery, and onions.

  2. Combine the vegetables in a large bowl.

Dress and serve

  1. Season with pepper, vinegar, coarse sea salt, mustard, and oil to taste.

  2. Toss gently to mix the dressing evenly with the vegetables.

  3. Serve immediately.

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 + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,356 recipes

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

  2. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Lettuce + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,033 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  5. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Lettuce
Forms the crisp leafy base that holds the dressing.
Celery
Adds crunch and a fresh, slightly juicy texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the oil.
Oil
Carries flavor and gives the dressing a smooth, coating body.
Mustard
Adds sharp flavor and helps emulsify the oil and vinegar.

The step that matters

Toss gently to mix the dressing evenly. Raw leaves and celery bruise and wilt easily under heavy handling. Gentle tossing coats the vegetables without crushing their cell walls, keeping them crisp.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Broccolifits better
  3. Beetrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lettuce, celery, pepper, vinegar, mustard. 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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