Why it works: Carrot and raisin work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and 174 recipes mention both. Both carry alpha-terpineol, which smells lilac, floral. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Directions
Make the salad
Combine all ingredients, except lettuce, thoroughly. Cover bowl.
Chill and serve
Chill 2 hours or longer before serving.
Serve on crisp lettuce.
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.
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Carrot + raisintop 12% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together174 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).
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Carrot + lettucetop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together975 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Raisin + sugartop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together12,480 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Raisin + lettucetop 11% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together29 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
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Carrot + sugartop 17% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together4,211 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Carrot
- Provides the main bulk and a crisp, fresh texture in the salad.
- Low-calorie dressing
- Adds moisture and tang that coats the carrots and raisins.
- Seedless raisins
- Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness against the crisp carrot.
The step that matters
Chill for at least 2 hours. Chilling lets the dressing soak into the shredded carrot and raisins, softening them slightly and allowing the flavors to blend. Serving straight away leaves the salad tasting raw and separated.
Flavor stand-ins for the lettuce
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, raisin, sugar):
- Sweet potatobetter flavor fit
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Parsnipbetter flavor fit
- Lettucethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, raisin, sugar. 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.
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