Why it works: Lettuce and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 425 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the lettuce
Remove all outside leaves from the lettuce and cut off the stalks close.
Cut each head into quarters by cutting through the stalk and tearing the rest.
Dress and serve
In a salad bowl, combine olive oil, tarragon vinegar, pepper, and salt; beat the mixture with a fork for a few minutes.
Add the lettuce to the bowl and toss swiftly for five minutes, adding the finely chopped mint.
Serve immediately.
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 + tarragontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together425 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Cabbage + lettucetop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together622 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tarragon + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,399 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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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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Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,081 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
- Olive oil
- Carries the flavour and coats the leaves with a light, rich fat.
- Tarragon vinegar
- Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the oil.
- Cabbage lettuce
- Forms the body of the salad, with crisp leaves that hold the dressing.
The step that matters
Beating the oil and vinegar before adding the lettuce. Oil and vinegar separate quickly, so beating them together with a fork creates a temporary emulsion that clings to the leaves instead of pooling at the bottom of the bowl.
Swap the mint
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, lettuce, olive, tarragon, vinegar, pepper):
- Dillfits better
- Capersfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Mintthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, lettuce, olive, tarragon, vinegar, pepper. 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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