Why it works: Lettuce and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,356 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
To Djiess Lettuce As Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the lettuce and eggs
Remove the outer leaves from the lettuce, wash it, and split it in half.
Soak the lettuce in cold water until dinner time.
Drain the lettuce and place it in a salad dish.
Boil the eggs for 12 minutes, then place them in cold water for 5 minutes.
Cut the eggs in half and place them on the lettuce.
Make the dressing
In a bowl, mash the yolks of the eggs with a wooden spoon.
Mix in 1 tablespoon of water and 2 tablespoons of sweet oil.
Gradually add ¼ teaspoon of coarse sea salt, 1 teaspoon of mustard, and 1 teaspoon of powdered sugar, mixing until smooth.
Slowly add 3 tablespoons of vinegar to the mixture.
Combine and serve
Chop the lettuce finely and mix it with the dressing.
If prepared in advance, place the dressing in the bottom of the salad dish, add the chopped lettuce, and let it rest until serving.
Optionally, decorate the top with slices of red beet and the hard white of the eggs cut into rings.
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.
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Lettuce + mustardtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,356 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Lettuce + vinegartop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,370 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,806 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Mustard + sugartop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,424 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg yolks
- Mashed yolks emulsify with the oil and mustard to form a smooth, creamy dressing.
- Sweet oil
- Adds fat that gives the dressing richness and a smooth texture.
- Vinegar
- Provides acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the yolks and oil.
- Mustard
- Helps bind the emulsion and adds a sharp, aromatic bite.
- Lettuce
- Forms the crisp base of the salad, providing texture and bulk.
The step that matters
Slowly add the vinegar. Adding vinegar slowly while mixing lets the yolk and oil emulsion hold together; adding it all at once can cause the dressing to split and become watery.
Swap the lettuce
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, mustard, sugar, vinegar):
- Horseradishfits better
- Cucumberfits about as well
- Shallotfits about as well
- Lettucethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, mustard, sugar, vinegar. 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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