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Salad

French Dressing

A simple vinaigrette made with olive oil, sea salt, paprika, and tarragon vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,547 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

French Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Beat the olive oil until creamy.

  2. Add the coarse sea salt and paprika, beating continuously.

  3. Gradually beat in the tarragon vinegar.

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. Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Olive + tarragontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,323 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Olive oil
Forms the fat base that carries the flavour and gives a creamy body when beaten.
Tarragon vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the oil.

The step that matters

Gradually beat in the tarragon vinegar.. Adding vinegar slowly while beating lets it disperse into the oil in tiny droplets, so the dressing forms a stable emulsion instead of separating into layers.

Swap the tarragon

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Tarragonthe original
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Rosemaryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against 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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