Name: Lettuce Salad with Cream Dressing
Ingredients: ½ cup milk (or cream); 1 teaspoon corn starch; 2 egg whites, beaten stiff; 3 tablespoons vinegar; 2 tablespoons salad oil; 2 teaspoons powdered sugar; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon pepper; 1 teaspoon prepared mustard

Why it works: Vinegar and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Lettuce Salad with Cream Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Heat the milk (or cream) almost to boiling.
Stir in the corn starch mixed with a little cold milk.
Boil briefly, then add the sugar and remove from heat.
Cool the mixture, then beat in the egg whites, oil, pepper, mustard, and salt.
Shred the lettuce finely, add the vinegar to the dressing, and pour it over the lettuce.
Toss gently with a silver fork and serve immediately.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,430 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,955 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,324 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Corn + mustardtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together463 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, corn, egg, vinegar, sugar, pepper):

Capsicumfits better
Potatofits about as well
Asparagusfits about as well
Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, corn, egg, vinegar, sugar, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.