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Salad

French Dressing No. 2

A vinaigrette dressing made with salt, oil, vinegar, onion juice, pepper, and optionally lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Olive M. Hulse · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

French Dressing No. 2

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. Put one teaspoonful of salt in a bowl.

  2. Cover with red and black pepper.

  3. Add four tablespoonfuls of oil and mix well.

  4. Add one tablespoonful of vinegar and one teaspoonful of onion juice.

  5. Set in a cool place until it is thoroughly chilled.

Serve

  1. Use lemon juice instead of vinegar for fruit salads.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

172Calories
1 gProtein
14 gFat
12 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Olive M. Hulse. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

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. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Vinegar + oniontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  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

Oil
Forms the body of the dressing and carries the flavour of the other ingredients.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the richness of the oil.
Onion juice
Adds a sharp, aromatic onion flavour.

The step that matters

Add the vinegar and onion juice after the oil. Oil and vinegar are immiscible, so they separate unless the mixture is well combined. Mixing the oil first, then adding the acid, lets it emulsify more evenly before chilling.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Cabbagefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, pepper. 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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