Name: Blue Cheese Salad Dressing
Ingredients: 1/2 cup Sour cream; 1/2 cup Milk; 1 cup Kraft mayo; 4 ounces Blue cheese, crumbled; 1/8 teaspoon Onion powder

Why it works: Milk and blue cheese match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 119 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Use an electric mixer to combine all ingredients until smooth.
Tightly cover and refrigerate.
Use within 10 days.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Milk + blue cheesetop 6% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together119 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Blue cheese + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together329 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).
Cream + milktop 9% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together29,395 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cream + oniontop 9% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together10,826 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Cream + blue cheesetop 9% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together76 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

Cream and onion share little aroma chemistry, yet 10,826 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Blue cheese: Provides the main sharp, tangy flavor and creamy bits throughout the dressing.
Sour cream: Adds tang and body, giving the dressing a thick, creamy texture.
Mayonnaise (in the method): Supplies fat and emulsified richness, giving the dressing a smooth, stable body.
Milk: Thins the creamy base so the dressing can be poured and coats greens easily.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, milk, blue cheese):

Potatobetter flavor fit
Onionthe original
Asparagusabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, milk, blue cheese. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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.