Name: Japanese Salad Dressing
Ingredients: 3/4 cup red miso; 3 tablespoons sugar; 3 tablespoons mirin (Japanese rice wine); 2 tablespoons water, hot; 2 teaspoons light soy sauce; 1/4 teaspoon sesame oil; 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds; 1/2 head iceberg lettuce, torn; 1 carrot, thinly sliced

Why it works: Miso and sesame match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 121 recipes mention both. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: soy, sesame (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Make the dressing

In a small bowl, combine miso and sugar.
Add mirin, water, soy sauce, sesame oil, and sesame seeds. Stir until well blended.

Serve

Serve over lettuce and carrot slices.
Toss to combine.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Miso + sesametop 2% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together121 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Sesame + lettucetop 3% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together193 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Rice wine + sesametop 4% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together244 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl pentanoate (yeast, fruit).
Lettuce + carrottop 4% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together975 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Miso + carrottop 5% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together60 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Red miso: Provides savory, salty depth and the dressing's main body and flavour.
Sugar: Adds sweetness that balances the salty miso and soy sauce.
Mirin: Adds mild sweetness and a glossy, rounded flavour to the dressing.
Toasted sesame seeds: Add nutty aroma and a light crunch to the dressing.

Flavor stand-ins for the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (miso, sugar, rice wine, sauce, sesame, lettuce):

Welsh onionbetter flavor fit
Capsicumbetter flavor fit
Spinachbetter flavor fit
Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against miso, sugar, rice wine, sauce, sesame, lettuce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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.