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Salad

French Dressing

A simple vinaigrette made with salt, vinegar, olive oil, and pepper or cayenne.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and olive 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 salad bowl, blend the ingredients by beating with a silver fork.

  2. Alternatively, shake together in a bottle if dressing is not prepared at the table.

  3. Add other seasonings as desired.

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. Vinegar + olivetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  2. Olive + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Olive oil
Provides the fat that carries the dressing and gives it a smooth, rich body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the dressing its sharp, bright flavour.
Salt
Seasons the dressing and brings out the flavour of the other ingredients.

The step that matters

Blending the oil and vinegar. Oil and vinegar do not mix on their own. Beating or shaking breaks the oil into tiny droplets suspended in the vinegar, so the dressing stays combined long enough to coat the salad.

“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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