Why it works: Ham and chicken are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,497 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓
Suffolk Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Fill a salad bowl half to three parts full with the shredded lettuce.
Layer the minced ham and hard-boiled eggs (or yolks) alternately.
Dress the mixture with English salad sauce just before serving.
If desired, add thin slices of cold chicken.
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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Ham + chickentop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,497 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Lettuce + chickentop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,421 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
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Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,526 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Lettuce + saucetop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,019 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Ham + saucetop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,314 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Very tender lettuces
- Forms the bulk of the bowl and provides a crisp, delicate base.
- Lean ham
- Adds savoury, salty flavour and a firm, meaty texture between the layers.
- Hard-boiled eggs
- Add richness and a soft, creamy texture that balances the lean ham.
- English salad sauce
- Supplies moisture and tangy flavour that coats the lettuce and other layers.
The step that matters
Dress just before serving. Lettuce wilts and loses crispness once it is coated with a wet dressing, so adding the sauce at the last moment keeps the leaves crisp and the salad fresh.
Swap the lettuce
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, egg, sauce, chicken):
- Mustardfits better
- Asparagusfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Lettucethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against ham, egg, sauce, chicken. 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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