Skip to main content

Stewed Lettuce

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stewed Lettuce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Remove the outer leaves from the lettuces and wash them well.

  2. Blanch the lettuces in boiling water for 10 minutes, then let them cool completely.

  3. Make a slight incision in each lettuce and season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

  4. Tie the lettuces firmly with cotton or fine string.

  5. Place a slice of bacon in the bottom of a stewpan and add the lettuces on top.

  6. Add chopped carrot, onion, and a bouquet garni.

  7. Cover with good stock and simmer for 2 hours.

  8. Remove the lettuces and skim the fat from the gravy after boiling.

  9. Pour the gravy over the lettuces before serving.

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. Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  2. Lettuce + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together976 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Nutmeg + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,424 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

Swap the onion

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

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Beetrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lettuce, pepper, nutmeg, carrot. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

You might also like

Carrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipesCreamy Lettuce SoupCreamy Lettuce Soup8 recipesLettuce SoupLettuce Soup8 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipes