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Dutch Lettuce

A salad of lettuce with bacon, boiled eggs, boiled potatoes, butter, vinegar, salt, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Hamilton, Ohio. First Methodist Episcopal church. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,456 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Dutch Lettuce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash lettuce, cut finely, and drain all water off. Place in a dish and add onions, sliced boiled eggs, salt, and sugar.

  2. Mash the hot potatoes and place them on top of the lettuce mixture.

Dress and serve

  1. Heat the vinegar until it melts the butter, or alternatively fry 3 or 4 slices of bacon, use the grease instead of butter, and pour the hot mixture over the lettuce.

  2. Serve immediately.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

387Calories
14 gProtein
20 gFat
38 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Bacon1 slice cooked (8g)43
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Salt1 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.

By Hamilton, Ohio. First Methodist Episcopal church. [from old catalog]. 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. Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Vinegar + potatotop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,608 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Butter + vinegartop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,513 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Egg + potatotop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,978 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Vinegar
Adds sharpness that balances the sweetness and richness of the dressing.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the warm dressing.
Bacon
Its rendered grease adds fat and savory flavor to the dressing.
Boiled potatoes
Add starch and body to the salad when mashed while hot.

The step that matters

Pour the dressing over the lettuce while it is hot. Hot vinegar and fat wilt the cut lettuce slightly and spread flavor evenly. If the dressing cools first, the leaves stay stiff and the flavor sits on top instead of coating them.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, vinegar, egg):

  1. Cucumberfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, vinegar, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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