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Salad

Green Pepper Salad

A salad of green peppers, tomatoes, onions, and romaine lettuce tossed with French dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and lettuce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,655 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Green Pepper Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel the tomatoes and onions.

  2. Chill all ingredients on ice.

  3. Wash the heart of Romaine lettuce.

  4. Dry the heart of Romaine lettuce without separating the leaves.

  5. Cut the tomatoes, onions, and peppers into rings.

Assemble and serve

  1. Slip the rings onto the lettuce leaves, alternating the colors.

  2. Serve with French dressing.

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. Tomato + lettucetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,655 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Onion + lettucetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,562 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + lettucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,037 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

Green peppers
Provides the main crisp, fresh vegetable body and mild bitter flavor of the salad.
Tomatoes
Adds juiciness and acidity, brightening the flavor of the salad.
Onions
Contributes sharp aroma and pungent flavor that balances the sweetness of the vegetables.
Romaine lettuce
Forms the crisp base that holds the rings and adds fresh, watery crunch.
French dressing
Adds fat, acidity and sweetness that moisten and season the vegetables.

The step that matters

Chill all ingredients on ice.. Cold keeps the lettuce and peppers crisp, since chilled cell walls stay firm and resist wilting. Keeping everything cold until serving preserves the fresh texture of the salad.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, tomato, lettuce):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Cucumberfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, tomato, lettuce. 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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