Why it works: Lettuce and capers match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 372 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Shrimp Salad
Ingredients
Directions
If using canned shrimp, cover with ice water for 20 minutes.
Drain the shrimp thoroughly and remove the intestinal veins.
Break the shrimp into pieces and moisten with cream dressing.
Arrange the shrimp on lettuce leaves.
Top each serving with a spoonful of dressing and garnish with whole shrimp, olives, and capers.
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 + caperstop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together372 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Olive + caperstop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,688 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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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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Shrimp + olivetop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,966 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).
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Shrimp + caperstop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together179 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
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 (shrimp, cream, olive, capers):
- Chivefits better
- Welsh onionfits about as well
- Shallotfits about as well
- Lettucethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, cream, olive, capers. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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