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Salad

Coss Lettuce

A fresh lettuce salad tossed with olive oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, chervil, and tarragon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Chervil and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 824 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Coss Lettuce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lettuce

  1. Remove the faded and coarse green leaves from the lettuces.

  2. Cut the green tops off and separate the leaves.

  3. Cut each leaf lengthwise and then into four or six pieces.

  4. Place the cut lettuce in a bowl.

Dress and serve

  1. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, oil, and vinegar.

  2. Gently toss the salad with a spoon and fork until well mixed.

  3. Add chopped chervil and tarragon for extra flavor.

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. Chervil + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together824 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Lettuce + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together396 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Lettuce + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together425 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Pepper + tarragontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Lettuce + olivetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,580 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
Form the bulk of the salad and provide its crisp texture.
Olive oil
Coats the leaves, adding richness and carrying flavor.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the oil.

The step that matters

Gently toss the salad. Tossing too hard bruises and tears the delicate leaves, releasing moisture and making them limp. A light hand with a spoon and fork keeps the leaves crisp while coating them evenly.

Swap the lettuce

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, olive, vinegar, chervil, tarragon):

  1. Lettucethe original
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Chivefits less well
  4. Mustardfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, olive, vinegar, chervil, tarragon. 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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