Why it works: Lettuce and sorrel match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 317 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
A Summer Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the lettuce
Wash the lettuce thoroughly.
Divide the lettuce and soak it in cold water for a while.
Drain and dry the lettuce with a napkin.
Cut the lettuce into small pieces before serving.
Assemble and serve
Add mustard, cresses, sorrel, and young onions if desired.
Garnish the dish with nasturtium flowers.
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 + sorreltop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together317 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Lettuce + mustardtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,356 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Mustard + sorreltop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together42 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,259 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Lettuce + oniontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,562 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Lettuce
- Forms the crisp, leafy base of the salad and provides most of its texture.
- Mustard
- Adds a sharp, peppery bite that contrasts with the mild lettuce.
- Cresses
- Contributes a peppery, fresh flavour and crisp leaves.
- Sorrel
- Adds a tart, lemony acidity that brightens the salad.
- Young onions
- Provides a mild, sharp onion aroma and flavour.
The step that matters
Drain and dry the lettuce. Leftover water dilutes the dressing and makes leaves limp, so thorough drying keeps the salad crisp.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lettuce, mustard, sorrel):
- Beetrootfits better
- Kalefits better
- Shallotfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lettuce, mustard, sorrel. 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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