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Salad Sandwiches

A sandwich made with shredded tomatoes, lettuce, and cress dressed in oil and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and lettuce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,655 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Salad Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Shred the tomatoes, lettuce, and cress finely.

  2. In a bowl, mix the shredded salad with salad oil, vinegar, pepper, and salt.

Assemble

  1. Spread a little of the mixture on half of the bread slices.

  2. Top with the remaining bread slices, press together, and trim the edges neatly.

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. Tomato + lettucetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,655 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Bread + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Tomatoes
Add moisture and fresh acidity to the filling.
Lettuce
Adds crisp texture and bulk to the filling.
Salad oil
Coats the shredded salad, adding richness and mouthfeel.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the filling.
Bread
Holds the filling and gives the sandwich its structure.

Swap the lettuce

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Cucumberfits better
  3. Mustardfits about as well
  4. Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, tomato, 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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