Why it works: Lettuce and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,356 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Lietttjcb Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dressing
Chop the hard boiled egg yolks into a powder.
In a bowl, combine the powdered yolks, sugar, salt, pepper, mustard, and salad oil.
Let the mixture stand for 5 minutes.
Add the vinegar and mix well.
Serve
Toss the lettuce with the dressing before serving.
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.
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Lettuce + mustardtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,356 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,430 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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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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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
What each ingredient does
- Hard boiled eggs
- Yolks are mashed into a powder that thickens and emulsifies the dressing, giving it body.
- Salad oil
- Adds fat that carries flavor and gives the dressing a smooth, coating texture.
- Vinegar
- Provides the acidity that gives the dressing its sharp, tangy bite.
- White sugar
- Balances the acidity of the vinegar with a touch of sweetness.
- Prepared mustard
- Adds sharp flavor and helps bind the oil and vinegar together.
- Lettuce
- Forms the crisp, leafy base that the dressing coats.
The step that matters
Add the vinegar and mix well. Vinegar is added after the oil and yolks so they can form a smooth base first. Mixing thoroughly keeps the dressing evenly blended rather than separating into oily and sharp layers.
Swap the lettuce
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, mustard, pepper, vinegar):
- Horseradishfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Shallotfits about as well
- Lettucethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, mustard, pepper, vinegar. 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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