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 ↓
To Dress Lettuce As Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the lettuce
Strip off outer leaves, wash, split in half.
Soak in cold water until dinner time.
Drain lettuce and place in salad dish.
Boil and cool the eggs
Boil eggs for 10 minutes. Place eggs in cold water for 5 minutes.
Cut eggs in half and lay on lettuce.
Make the dressing
Mash yolks with a wooden spoon. Mix in 2 tablespoons water and 6 tablespoons sweet oil.
Gradually add ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt, 1 teaspoon mustard, and 1 teaspoon powdered sugar, mixing until smooth.
Slowly add 3 tablespoons vinegar to the mixture.
Assemble and serve
Finely chop lettuce and mix with dressing.
If prepared in advance, place dressing in the bottom of the salad dish, add chopped salad, and let rest until serving.
Decorate the top with slices of red beet and the hard white of the eggs cut into rings.
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.
-
Lettuce + mustardtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,356 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Lettuce + vinegartop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,370 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,806 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
-
Mustard + sugartop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,424 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Lettuce
- Forms the bulk of the salad and carries the dressing, with its crisp leaves softened by soaking.
- Hard-boiled eggs
- Provide richness and body; the mashed yolks thicken and enrich the dressing.
- Sweet oil
- Supplies fat that gives the dressing a smooth, rounded mouthfeel and carries flavour.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the oil.
- Mustard
- Acts as an emulsifier that helps the oil and vinegar hold together in the dressing.
- Powdered sugar
- Adds a little sweetness that rounds out the sharpness of the vinegar.
The step that matters
Slowly add the vinegar. Adding acid too quickly can break the emulsion of oil, yolk and mustard, leaving a greasy, separated dressing. Adding it slowly lets the mixture stay smooth and cohesive.
Swap the lettuce
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, mustard, sugar, vinegar):
- Horseradishfits better
- Cucumberfits about as well
- Shallotfits about as well
- Lettucethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, mustard, 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.
You might also like
Chicken Salad623 recipes
Salad Dressing491 recipes
Tomato Salad179 recipes
Cold Slaw160 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.