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Salad

French Dressing

A simple vinaigrette made with salt, vinegar or lemon juice, paprika, oil, and optional tarragon vinegar, mustard, or onion juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 901 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

French Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, combine salt, vinegar or lemon juice, and paprika.

  2. Slowly add the oil while stirring continuously.

  3. If desired, mix in tarragon vinegar, mustard, and onion juice for added 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. Tarragon + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together901 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  2. Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + tarragontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Tarragon + oniontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,568 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Oil
Forms the body of the dressing and carries fat-soluble flavor, giving it a smooth mouthfeel.
Vinegar or lemon juice
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and balances the richness of the oil.
Paprika
Contributes mild sweet pepper flavor and a warm reddish color.

The step that matters

Adding the oil slowly while stirring. Oil and vinegar are not naturally miscible. Adding oil gradually while stirring breaks it into small droplets that stay suspended, so the dressing forms a more stable emulsion instead of separating into layers.

Swap the tarragon

The recipe marks tarragon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, mustard, onion):

  1. Capersfits about as well
  2. Garlicfits about as well
  3. Tarragonthe original
  4. Celeryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, mustard, onion. 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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