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Salad

Summer Salad

A salad of sliced lettuce, radishes, cucumber, boiled egg, dressed with oil, vinegar, salt, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,356 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Summer Salad

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cut the lettuces, radishes, and cucumber into thin slices using a silver knife.

  2. Place the dressing at the bottom of a bowl.

  3. Add the sliced vegetables and garnish with sliced boiled egg and cress.

  4. Ensure the vegetables are fresh and thoroughly drained.

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. Lettuce + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,356 recipes

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

  2. Lettuce + cucumbertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,409 recipes

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

  3. Radish + cucumbertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together212 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Mustard + radishtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together297 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Lettuce + radishtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together58 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Lettuces
Forms the leafy base and provides a crisp, tender texture.
Radishes
Add crunch and a sharp, peppery bite.
Cucumber
Adds crisp texture and a cool, watery freshness.
Salad oil
Provides fat that coats the leaves and carries flavour from the dressing.
Brown vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the oil.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that softens the sharpness of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Ensure vegetables are fresh and thoroughly drained. Surface water left on sliced leaves and cucumber thins the dressing and makes the salad soggy. Well-drained, crisp vegetables hold their texture and let the oil and vinegar cling to them.

Swap the lettuce

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mustard, radish, cucumber, egg, vinegar, sugar):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Lettucethe original
  3. Broccolifits about as well
  4. Cauliflowerfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, radish, cucumber, egg, vinegar, sugar. 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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