Name: Vietnamese Rolls
Ingredients: 16 wrappers Wheat flour wrappers; Oil for deep-frying; 16 leaves small Lettuce; 4 wrappers large Rice-flour wrappers; 1 cup Bamboo shoots, julienned cut; 1 small Onion, thinly sliced; 2 Carrots, peeled and julienned cut; 1 tablespoon Oil; 8 ounces Firm tofu; 2 teaspoons Cornstarch; 2 tablespoons Water; 2 tablespoons Soy sauce; pound Bean sprouts; cup Tree ear fungus; teaspoon Kosher salt; 2 cups Chinese cabbage, thinly sliced

Why it works: Lettuce and bamboo shoots share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

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.

Lettuce + bamboo shootstop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Bamboo shoots + tofutop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together21 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Flour + bamboo shootstop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together67 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Lettuce + carrottop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together976 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together21,601 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

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wheat, flour, lettuce, rice, bamboo shoots, carrot, tofu):

Welsh onionfits better
Spinachfits better
Broccolifits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against wheat, flour, lettuce, rice, bamboo shoots, carrot, tofu. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Tofu	100g firm	76
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Chinese Cabbage	1 cup shredded (89g)	22
Lettuce	1 cup shredded (36g)	5
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Wheat	not in our table	0
Bamboo Shoots	not in our table	0
Water	not in our table	0
Sauce	not in our table	0
Bean	not in our table	0

Vietnamese Rolls