Why it works: Lettuce and beetroot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 678 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓
Salmon Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Cut the salmon into neat pieces, 2 inches square and ½ inch thick.
Season each piece with oil, vinegar, pepper, and salt.
Prepare aspic jelly, seasoning it with pepper, salt, vinegar, and chopped ravigote.
Wash and dry the lettuce, then divide the hearts in half to create a border on a dish.
Decorate the border with prawns, hard-boiled eggs, and beetroot.
Layer salmon in the center of the dish and pour a little aspic over it.
Allow the aspic to set, then add another layer of salmon and repeat until the layers form a point.
Pour more jelly over the top, place half a hard-boiled egg on it, and secure a heart of cabbage-lettuce.
Keep the salad in a cool place until ready to serve.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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 + beetroottop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together678 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Pepper + lettucetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,037 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pepper + beetroottop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,682 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,814 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Vinegar + lettucetop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,370 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the beetroot
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, vinegar, pepper, lettuce, egg):
- Cucumberfits better
- Mustardfits better
- Chivefits better
- Beetrootthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, vinegar, pepper, lettuce, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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