Why it works: Lettuce and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,019 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Lettuce Stalk Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Tie the stalks in bundles, cutting them to a similar size.
Place in a saucepan and boil for 10 to 15 minutes until tender.
Remove and drain, then let them cool completely.
Assemble
Slice the stalks into even pieces.
Place in a salad bowl and cover with mayonnaise sauce.
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 + saucetop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,019 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Lettuce stalks
- Boiling softens the fibrous stalks until tender enough to eat.
- Mayonnaise sauce
- Adds fat and creamy richness that coats the cooked stalks.
The step that matters
Boil until tender. Lettuce stalks from plants running to seed are fibrous, and under-boiling leaves them tough and stringy. Checking for tenderness with a knife or fork ensures they are soft throughout before cooling.
“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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