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French Dressing

A vinaigrette made with olive oil, vinegar, salt, and white pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Olive and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,297 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, fruity. The science ↓

French Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a cup, mix salt and white pepper.

  2. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and mix well.

  3. Gradually add half of the vinegar, mixing continuously.

  4. Alternately add the remaining olive oil and vinegar until combined.

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. Olive + vinegartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  2. Vinegar + white peppertop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Olive + white peppertop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together586 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Olive oil
Provides fat and a smooth, rich mouthfeel, and carries the flavour of the dressing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the richness of the oil.

The step that matters

Gradually add the vinegar while mixing continuously. Oil and vinegar do not mix on their own. Adding the liquid slowly while mixing breaks the oil into tiny droplets dispersed in the vinegar, creating a temporary emulsion. Adding it all at once lets the oil separate back out.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, 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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