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Salad

Thousand Island Dressing

A creamy salad dressing made with olive oil, egg yolk, spices, vinegar, chili sauce, whipped cream, olives, pimento, green pepper, and mustard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Thousand Island Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. In a bowl, gradually add 1 cup of olive oil to the beaten yolk of 1 egg.

  2. Once the mixture is stiff, add ½ teaspoon of salt, ¼ teaspoon of paprika, celery salt, and sugar to taste.

Finish the dressing

  1. Stir in 2 tablespoons of vinegar or lemon juice and ½ teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce.

  2. Mix in 1 cup of chili sauce and 1 cup of whipped cream.

  3. Finally, fold in 2 tablespoons of chopped olives, 2 tablespoons of minced pimento or stuffed olives, ½ minced green pepper, and a pinch of dry mustard.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Olive + celerytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,667 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. 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

Egg yolk
Emulsifies the oil so the dressing becomes thick and stable.
Olive oil
Provides the fat that gives the dressing its rich body and mouthfeel.
Chili sauce
Supplies sweetness, acidity and the characteristic reddish color of the dressing.
Whipped cream
Adds lightness and a creamy texture that softens the dressing.

The step that matters

Adding the oil to the yolk. Oil must be added slowly while whisking so it disperses into tiny droplets held by the lecithin in the yolk. Adding it too fast breaks the emulsion, leaving the dressing oily and thin.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, egg, sugar, vinegar, sauce, cream, 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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