Why it works: Dandelion and garlic share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 24 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the greens
Cut off the roots and green portions of the dandelion leaves.
Wash the leaves and steep them in salt water until crisp.
Drain and press the leaves dry.
Dress and serve
Rub a salad bowl with a clove of garlic.
Place the dandelions in the bowl.
Season with salt and sweet paprika.
Dress with olive oil and a few drops of vinegar.
Serve in the same bowl.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Dandelion + garlictop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together24 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Olive + garlictop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together23,449 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
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Olive + vinegartop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together10,843 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
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Vinegar + garlictop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together9,034 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Dandelion + olivetop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together49 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptenal (green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Dandelion greens
- Provide the bitter, leafy base of the salad.
- Olive oil
- Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour across the leaves.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that brightens the bitter greens.
- Garlic
- Rubbed into the bowl to give a subtle aroma.
The step that matters
Press the leaves dry. Water left on the leaves dilutes the dressing so oil and vinegar slide off instead of coating them. Thorough drying helps the dressing cling and keeps the salad crisp.
“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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