Name: Lettuce Salad
Ingredients: 1 head of lettuce; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; ¼ teaspoon white pepper; ½ cup oil; 1 tablespoon vinegar

Why it works: Lettuce and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,370 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Lettuce Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Wash and dry the lettuce carefully.
In a bowl, combine salt and pepper.
Add ½ cup of oil and pour it over the lettuce.
Toss the leaves until they shine.
Add 2 more tablespoons of oil and toss again.
Finally, add 1 tablespoon of vinegar and mix lightly.

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.

Lettuce + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,370 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
White pepper + vinegartop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,154 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Lettuce + white peppertop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together208 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).