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Salad

Leek and Lettuce Salad

A salad of blanched leeks and shredded cos lettuce dressed with French salad dressing and garnished with hard‑boiled egg slices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Leek and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 217 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Leek and Lettuce Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the leeks

  1. Clean and cut the leeks into pieces about 3 inches long.

  2. Blanch and boil the leeks in salted water until done, then drain and press dry.

  3. Chill the leeks in the refrigerator until cold.

Assemble the salad

  1. Clean and shred the required amount of Cos lettuce.

  2. Arrange the lettuce in a pyramid in the center of a large salad plate.

  3. Cut the leeks in half lengthwise and arrange them endwise around the lettuce pyramid, cut side out.

  4. Pour French salad dressing over the salad.

  5. Garnish the base of each leek with a slice of hard boiled egg.

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.

  1. Leek + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together217 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  2. Leek + eggtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together294 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Lettuce + eggtop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Leeks
Form the main body of the salad, providing a mild, tender vegetable texture.
Cos lettuce
Forms the central pyramid, adding crisp texture and fresh bulk to the plate.
French salad dressing
Adds moisture and tangy, seasoned flavor that coats the leeks and lettuce.
Hard boiled egg
Adds rich, soft texture and mild savory flavor as a garnish.

The step that matters

Blanch and boil the leeks in salted water until done, then drain and press dry.. Leeks must be cooked until tender but not mushy; pressing them dry removes excess water so the dressing clings instead of diluting.

Swap the lettuce

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against leek, 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.

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