Why it works: Lettuce and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,019 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Lettuce Stalk Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Tie the stalks in bundles, cutting them to a similar size.
Place in a saucepan and boil until tender, about 10 to 15 minutes.
Remove and drain the stalks, then let them cool completely.
Slice the cooled stalks into uniform pieces.
Place in a salad bowl and cover with mayonnaise sauce.
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 + saucetop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,019 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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