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Salad

French Dressing

A simple vinaigrette with salt, mustard, sugar, pepper, olive oil, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

French Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, combine salt, mustard, sugar, and black pepper.

  2. Mix well, then gradually add 3 tablespoons of olive oil, stirring until smooth.

  3. Finally, add 1 tablespoon of vinegar and mix again.

  4. Optionally, substitute black pepper with red pepper.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Mustard + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  4. Olive + vinegartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  5. Pepper + olivetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Olive oil
Fat that carries flavor and gives the dressing a smooth, rich body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and balances the oil.
Mustard
Acts as an emulsifier, helping the oil and vinegar stay blended together.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that softens the sharpness of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Adding the oil gradually while stirring. Mustard helps hold oil in tiny droplets within the vinegar. Pouring the oil in quickly or without stirring can overwhelm it, so the dressing separates instead of turning smooth.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Cucumberfits less well

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