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 ↓
Chicken Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Mrs. Jacobi.
Take a young, tender chicken of 2^ pounds. Boil for I hour, or should it be a fowl, boil ^ or i hour longer. Season while boiling with a little salt; w^hen cooked, let it get thoroughly cold. Bone the chicken and cut into small pieces, put in a deep dish; season with a pinch of salt, a little pepper, i tablespoonful of vinegar, or the juice of i large lemon, 3 leaves of chopped lettuce, and a few pieces of white celery cut small. Mix well; place it in a salad bowl and cover with Y^, cupful of mayonnaise dressing. Decorate the top with a chopped hard boiled q:%%, a table- spoonful of capers, 12 stoned olives, quarters of 2 hard boiled eggs and 6 small lettuce leaves around dish, then serve. Very fine.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Black Pepper | 1 tsp ground (2.3g) | 6 |
| Lettuce | 1 cup shredded (36g) | 5 |
| Olive | 1 large (4g) | 4 |
| Vinegar | 1 tbsp (15ml) distilled | 3 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Lettuce + olivetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,580 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Lettuce + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,037 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Olive + vinegartop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,297 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
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Olive + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,263 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
Swap the lettuce
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, egg, pepper, vinegar):
- Capsicumfits better
- Cucumberfits better
- Tomatofits better
- Lettucethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against olive, egg, pepper, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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