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Tango Salad

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,356 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tango Salad

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Pare, halve, and core the pears; squeeze lemon juice over them to prevent discoloration.

  2. Place a ball of cream cheese or a few cubes of Roquefort cheese in the cavity of each pear half.

  3. Set the pears on heart leaves of lettuce and pour the dressing over them.

  4. For the dressing, mix olive oil, vinegar, salt, mustard, paprika, and chili sauce; beat and blend well.

  5. Gradually mix this dressing into the mayonnaise.

  6. Garnish the salad and dressing with julienne strips of pimientos.

  7. If using canned pimientos, rinse in cold water, dry on a cloth, and cut into strips.

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.

  1. Lettuce + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,356 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Lettuce + olivetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Olive + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,922 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Olive + mustardtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

Swap the pear

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream cheese, lettuce, olive, vinegar, mustard, sauce, lemon):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Pearthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream cheese, lettuce, olive, vinegar, mustard, sauce, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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