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Salad

Crayfish Salad

A salad of boiled crayfish served with lettuce, olive oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and olive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,580 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Crayfish Salad

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the crayfish

  1. Boil the crayfish in water until cooked, about 5-7 minutes.

  2. Peel the crayfish and set aside.

Assemble and serve

  1. Chop the lettuce and place it in a large bowl.

  2. Add the peeled crayfish to the lettuce.

  3. Season with salt, pepper, olive oil, and vinegar.

  4. Toss gently to combine and 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 + olivetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,580 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. Olive + vinegartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  4. Pepper + olivetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Crayfish
Provides the main protein and the bulk of the salad.
Lettuce
Forms the leafy base and adds crisp, cool texture.
Olive oil
Adds fat and carries flavor across the leaves and crayfish.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the oil.

Swap the lettuce

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Mustardfits about as well
  4. Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against crayfish, pepper, olive, 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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