Name: Spring Salad
Ingredients: shredded romaine lettuce; watercress; dandelion greens; 1 raw carrot, grated; French dressing; hard boiled eggs, sliced

Why it works: Watercress and dandelion share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Spring Salad

Ingredients

Directions

In a large bowl, combine the shredded romaine, watercress, dandelion greens, and grated carrot.
Drizzle with French dressing and toss to combine.
Serve topped with slices of hard boiled eggs.

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.

Watercress + dandeliontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together20 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Lettuce + watercresstop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together307 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Lettuce + dandeliontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Lettuce + carrottop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together976 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Dandelion + carrottop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together18 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Shredded romaine lettuce: Forms the crisp base of the salad, giving most of its volume and crunch.
Watercress: Adds a peppery bite and crisp leaves that contrast with the milder greens.
Dandelion greens: Contributes a slightly bitter flavor and sturdier leaves that hold up to dressing.
Hard boiled eggs: Adds richness and soft texture that balances the crisp, sharp greens.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lettuce, watercress, dandelion, egg):

Beetrootfits better
Chivefits better
Spinachfits better
Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lettuce, watercress, dandelion, egg. 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.