Why it works: Vinegar and lettuce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,370 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Salads
Ingredients
Directions
Use white pepper instead of black.
Substitute lemon or lime juice for vinegar if preferred.
Select only the crisp white leaves of lettuce and keep them on ice until serving.
Marinate cut meats in French dressing.
Use a piping bag to apply mayonnaise dressing over individual salads.
Press the yolks of hard boiled eggs through a sieve onto the mayonnaise dressing for garnish.
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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Vinegar + lettucetop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,370 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Lettuce + meattop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together579 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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White pepper + vinegartop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,154 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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White pepper + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,312 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
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Meat + eggtop 22% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,432 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the white pepper
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, lettuce, meat, egg):
- Tarragonfits better
- Capersfits better
- Dillfits better
- White pepperthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, lettuce, meat, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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