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Salad

Lettuce Dressing

A simple dressing for lettuce using salt, pepper, vinegar, and Lautier's olive oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Gibson, Marietta Fauntleroy Hollyday, "Mrs. C. H. Gibson." · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 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 ↓

Lettuce Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lettuce

  1. After washing, place the lettuce on or near ice and do not leave it in water.

  2. Break the lettuce instead of cutting it.

Make and toss the dressing

  1. Mix one salt spoon of salt and a little pepper in a large tablespoon.

  2. Add vinegar to the tablespoon, stir quickly, and pour it slowly over the lettuce.

  3. Pour three tablespoonsful of Lautier's olive oil over the lettuce, and work it thoroughly with a fork and spoon, turning it over and over.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

124Calories
0 gProtein
14 gFat
1 gCarbs

Counts 3 of 4 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Lettuce1 cup shredded (36g)5
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Saladnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Gibson, Marietta Fauntleroy Hollyday, "Mrs. C. H. Gibson.". 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. See the original page.

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).

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

What each ingredient does

Lettuce
Forms the bulk of the salad, providing the crisp texture that the dressing coats.
Olive oil
Coats the leaves and adds richness and fat to the dressing.
Vinegar (in the method)
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the dressing.

The step that matters

Toss the dressing in thoroughly. Working the oil and vinegar through the leaves with a fork and spoon spreads the dressing evenly, so each leaf gets a light coat rather than pooling at the bottom of the bowl.

“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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