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 ↓
Shrimp Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Boil the shrimps in salted water for 5 minutes, then remove the heads and hard shells.
Wash and dry the lettuce by shaking it in a clean towel.
Assemble and dress
Arrange the shrimps and lettuce in a salad dish.
Chop the parsley and mix it with the prepared mayonnaise.
Dress the salad with the mayonnaise mixture.
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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Shrimp + lettucetop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together430 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
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Shrimp + parsleytop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,723 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Shrimps
- Provide the main protein and the sweet, delicate flavour of the salad.
- Lettuce
- Adds a crisp, cool base and light texture that contrasts with the creamy dressing.
- Mayonnaise
- Adds fat and richness, coating the shrimp and lettuce with a creamy, moist dressing.
- Parsley
- Adds a fresh, herbal aroma that lifts the richness of the mayonnaise.
The step that matters
Boiling the shrimps. Shrimp should be boiled only until just opaque, because its proteins tighten and turn tough and rubbery when overcooked.
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shrimp, lettuce):
- Capersfits better
- Tarragonfits better
- Garlicfits better
- Parsleythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, lettuce. 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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