Why it works: Lettuce and vinegar 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 ↓
Lettuce Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the lettuce
Break off the outer leaves of the lettuce and use only the inner ones.
Tear out the hard vein and cut the lettuce into bits.
Wash the lettuce thoroughly and drain it in a colander without pressing it.
Dress and serve
Just before serving, mix the lettuce with salad oil, salt, sugar, and vinegar.
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 + vinegartop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,370 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,806 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Lettuce + sugartop 29% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,486 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Lettuce
- Forms the crisp body of the salad and carries the dressing.
- Salad oil
- Coats the leaves with fat, giving a smooth mouthfeel and helping the dressing cling.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sweetness.
- Sugar
- Softens the sharpness of the vinegar and rounds out the dressing's flavour.
The step that matters
Dress just before serving. Salt and vinegar draw water out of lettuce leaves through osmosis, so they wilt and lose crispness if left to sit. Mixing the dressing in at the last moment keeps the leaves crisp.
Swap the lettuce
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, vinegar):
- Mustardfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Cucumberfits better
- Lettucethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar. 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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