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Salad

Cheese and Lettuce Salad

A salad of lettuce topped with fried strips of mild cheese coated in egg and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cheese and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,130 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cheese and Lettuce Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Dress the lettuce with French dressing.

  2. Cut the mild cheese into strips like French fries.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each cheese strip in the beaten egg.

  2. Roll the cheese strips in fine bread crumbs.

  3. Fry the cheese strips in boiling oil until browned.

Serve

  1. Serve the fried cheese on the dressed lettuce.

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.

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. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

  3. Lettuce + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together602 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Lettuce + cheesetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together614 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Cheese + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,253 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

Mild cheese
Melts and softens inside while the crumb coating crisps, giving a contrast of textures.
Egg
Binds the bread crumbs to the cheese so the coating holds during frying.
Fine bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned outer crust when fried.
Lettuce
Provides a cool, crisp base that contrasts with the hot fried cheese.

The step that matters

Frying the coated cheese. The oil must be hot enough to brown the crumbs quickly. If it is too cool, the coating absorbs oil and turns greasy, and the cheese may leak out before the crust sets.

Swap the lettuce

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, egg, bread. 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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