Why it works: Lettuce and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,356 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Lettuce
Ingredients
Directions
Break the leaves apart from the stalk and rinse them in cold water.
Lay the largest leaves in a salad bowl, followed by medium-sized leaves, and top with the finest white leaves.
Slice hard-boiled eggs and arrange them around the edge of the salad.
Serve with vinegar, oil, and mustard on the side.
Alternatively, cut the washed lettuce into small pieces and place in a glass dish.
Pour salad dressing over the cut salad and garnish with halved or sliced radishes and quartered or sliced hard-boiled eggs before serving.
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 + mustardtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,356 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Mustard + radishtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together297 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Lettuce + radishtop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together58 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Vinegar + radishtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together508 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Early lettuce
- Forms the leafy base of the salad and supplies its crisp texture.
- Hard-boiled eggs
- Add richness and a soft, creamy texture to the salad.
- Made mustard
- Adds sharp, pungent flavour that cuts through the richness of the eggs.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the oil.
- Oil
- Adds fat and smoothness, carrying flavour through the dressing.
Swap the radish
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lettuce, egg, vinegar, mustard):
- Horseradishfits better
- Cucumberfits better
- Beetrootfits about as well
- Radishthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lettuce, egg, vinegar, mustard. 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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