Name: Plain Salad-dressing
Ingredients: Lettuce leaves; Finest oil (olive oil recommended); Tarragon vinegar or red wine vinegar; Coarse sea salt; Freshly ground black pepper

Why it works: Lettuce and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 425 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Plain Salad-dressing

Ingredients

Lettuce leaves
Finest oil (olive oil recommended)
Tarragon vinegar or red wine vinegar
Coarse sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Remove the leaves from the lettuce stalk, discarding bruised or discolored ones.
Wash muddy leaves in a basin and drain thoroughly on a sieve, then dry with a cloth.
Place clean leaves in a bowl, tear them into pieces, and toss with a wooden spoon and fork.
While tossing, drizzle the finest oil over the leaves until they are evenly coated.
Add a few drops of vinegar and dust with salt and freshly ground black pepper while continuing to toss.
Avoid letting dressing settle at the bottom to maintain crispness.
Mix the salad just before serving for the best flavor.

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.

Lettuce + tarragontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together425 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Tarragon + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,399 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Lettuce + olivetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,580 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Olive + tarragontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,323 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Lettuce + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,037 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).