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Salad

A Wholesome Summer Salad

A salad of thinly sliced beef and fresh white lettuce dressed with salt, pepper, vinegar and salad oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,037 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

A Wholesome Summer Salad

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a salad bowl, combine the beef and lettuce.

  2. Season with salt and pepper.

  3. Add vinegar and salad oil.

  4. Stir gently with a fork and spoon until well mixed.

  5. Serve immediately.

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. Lettuce + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,037 recipes

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

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Lettuce + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Beef + lettucetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together662 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Supplies the savory, meaty main component of the salad.
Lettuce
Provides the crisp, fresh bulk and texture of the salad.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that brightens the flavor of the beef and lettuce.
Salad oil
Adds fat that coats the leaves and carries flavor.

The step that matters

Serve immediately. Vinegar and salt draw water out of lettuce leaves through osmosis, so the leaves soften and wilt if the salad waits. Serving right after dressing keeps the greens crisp.

Swap the lettuce

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Onionfits better
  4. Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, 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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