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Salad

Lettuce Salad

A simple salad of washed lettuce tossed with salt, pepper, sugar, oil, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,037 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Lettuce Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the lettuce thoroughly and select the best, whitest, and crispest leaves.

  2. Soak the leaves in ice water until ready to serve.

Assemble and serve

  1. Line a serving platter with a small napkin and pile the lettuce on it.

  2. Tear the leaves into smaller pieces and place them in a salad bowl.

  3. Sprinkle salt, pepper, and sugar over the lettuce.

  4. Add salad oil and double the amount of vinegar, then toss gently with a salad fork and spoon.

  5. Serve immediately to enjoy the crispness of the lettuce.

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. Lettuce + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,037 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  3. Lettuce + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Lettuce + sugartop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,486 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

What each ingredient does

Lettuce
Forms the body of the salad and provides the crisp texture.
Salad oil
Coats the leaves and adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the dressing.
White sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with a touch of sweetness.

The step that matters

Serve immediately after tossing. Salt and acid draw water out of lettuce leaves, so they wilt quickly once dressed. Serving right after tossing keeps the leaves crisp.

Swap the lettuce

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Cabbagefits better
  4. Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, 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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