Why it works: Lettuce and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,483 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓
Egg Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the eggs
Place the eggs in a pot of cold water.
Bring the water to a boil, then simmer for 15 minutes.
Transfer the eggs to cold water to cool.
Assemble and serve
Peel the eggs and slice them thinly.
Arrange the slices in a bowl lined with lettuce leaves and sprinkle with chopped parsley.
Serve with French dressing.
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 + parsleytop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,483 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,765 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Egg + lettucetop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,301 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Form the main body of the salad, setting firm when simmered and sliced.
- Lettuce leaves
- Provide a crisp base that holds the egg slices and adds freshness.
- French dressing
- Adds moisture and acidity that seasons the sliced eggs.
The step that matters
Transfer the eggs to cold water to cool. Plunging simmered eggs into cold water stops the cooking so the yolks do not keep firming and turning grey at the surface, and it makes the shells easier to peel cleanly.
Swap the lettuce
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, parsley):
- Shallotfits better
- Chivefits better
- Carrotfits better
- Lettucethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, parsley. 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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