Why it works: Lettuce and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 29% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,486 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓
Lettuce Water for Invalids
Ingredients
Directions
Wash and clean the lettuce heads.
Soak the lettuce in boiling water for 1 hour.
Strain the mixture through a napkin.
Season with sugar.
Take 1 cup before each meal for several days.
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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Lettuce + sugartop 29% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,486 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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