Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Lettuce Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the lettuce
Keep lettuce in a cool place until just before serving.
Wash the lettuce carefully in cold water and drain on a sieve.
Break the lettuce into small pieces by hand; do not cut.
Make the dressing and serve
Lay the lettuce on a salad dish.
In a bowl, beat the cream and sugar well.
Add the vinegar to the cream mixture and serve immediately.
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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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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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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Cream + vinegartop 25% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,064 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Lettuce + creamtop 26% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,121 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Lettuce
- Forms the crisp, leafy body of the salad.
- Cream
- Provides fat for a rich, smooth dressing.
- Granulated sugar
- Adds sweetness to the cream dressing.
- Vinegar
- Adds sharpness that balances the sweetness of the dressing.
The step that matters
Add the vinegar to the cream and serve immediately. Acid acts on cream and can make it thicken or curdle, and the dressing keeps changing after mixing. Serving right away keeps its texture as intended.
Swap the lettuce
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, sugar, vinegar):
- Mustardfits better
- Horseradishfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Lettucethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cream, 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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