Name: English Salad
Ingredients: 1 head of crisp lettuce; a few fresh mint leaves; 1 tablespoon salad oil; 2 tablespoons vinegar; 2 teaspoons sugar; pepper to taste; coarse sea salt to taste

Why it works: Lettuce and mint work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 569 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

English Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lettuce

Wash the lettuce leaves and wipe them with a soft cloth.
Split the leaves down the stalk and cut each half into four pieces.

Dress and serve

Place the pieces in a salad bowl with fresh mint leaves.
Season with salad oil, vinegar, sugar, pepper, and salt, then mix well.
Serve.

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 + minttop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together569 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Lettuce + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,037 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Mint + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,372 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Lettuce + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,370 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Lettuce: Forms the crisp, leafy base of the salad.
Salad oil: Coats the leaves, adding a smooth mouthfeel and carrying flavour.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the sugar.
Sugar: Softens the sharpness of the vinegar for a rounded sweetness.
Fresh mint leaves: Contributes a cool, aromatic herbal note.