Salad Dressing

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. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
   Smell alikemoderate
   Cooked together14,067 recipes

   Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

2. Mustard + flourtop 13% of all pairs
   Smell alikemoderate
   Cooked together5,066 recipes

   Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

3. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
   Smell alikemoderate
   Cooked together92,116 recipes

   Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

4. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
   Smell alikemoderate
   Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
   Smell alikelow
   Cooked together106,462 recipes

   Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they 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

Egg yolks

Thicken the dressing and add richness as they set during cooking.

Flour

Thickens the dressing and gives it body as it cooks.

Sugar

Adds sweetness to balance the sharpness of the vinegar.

Vinegar

Provides the acidity that gives the dressing its tang.

The step that matters

Swap the mustard

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

1. Shallotfits about as well
2. Mustardthe original
3. Arrowrootfits about as well
4. Cucumberfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, vinegar, egg, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.