Name: Green Head Lettuce
Ingredients: 1 head green lettuce; 1 tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice; 1 tablespoon water; ¼ teaspoon salt; ¼ teaspoon sugar; 2 hard boiled eggs

Why it works: Lettuce and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,370 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Green Head Lettuce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Remove the outer leaves from the lettuce head.
Slice the head into quarters and wash well.
Place in a sieve to drain off excess water.

Dress and serve

In a bowl, prepare a dressing with vinegar or lemon juice, water, salt, and sugar to taste.
Pour the dressing over the lettuce on a dish and toss to coat.
Garnish with hard boiled eggs sliced into quarters.

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 + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,370 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lettuce + sugartop 29% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,486 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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

Green lettuce: Forms the crisp leafy base of the salad.
Vinegar or lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the sugar.
Hard boiled eggs: Add richness and protein as a garnish.