Name: Salad Dressing That Will Keep
Ingredients: half cupful of mustard; five teaspoon fuls of salt; eight tablespoonfuls of olive oil; one-half cupfuls of butter; one-half cupfuls of vinegar; one quart of whipped cream; a pinch of red pepper; one scant half cupful of mustard; one tablespoon- ful of sugar; two small lemons; four large year-old chickens; mustard; pepper; salt; vinegar

Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

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.

Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Olive + lemontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,922 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Mustard + olivetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,950 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks (in the method): Bind the oil and butter into a smooth emulsion, giving the dressing body.
Mustard: Acts as an emulsifier that helps hold the oil and vinegar together.
Olive oil: Adds fat and smooth richness to the dressing.
Butter: Adds fat and creamy richness to the dressing.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that gives the dressing its sharp, bright taste.
Whipped cream: Adds air and lightness, softening the dressing when added at the end.

The step that matters

Stir constantly while combining the fats. Oil and butter are added to a yolk and mustard base. Constant stirring keeps the droplets dispersed, so the emulsion holds and the dressing does not separate.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mustard, olive, butter, vinegar, cream, pepper, sugar):

Lemonthe original
Avocadofits about as well
Cherryfits about as well
Mangofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, olive, butter, vinegar, cream, pepper, sugar. 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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Cream	1 tbsp (15ml) heavy	51
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Chili	1 tsp (2.7g)	8
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Mustard	1 tsp (5g) yellow	3
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Salad Dressing That Will Keep