Why it works: Mustard and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 901 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓
Cheese Dressing
Ingredients
Directions
In a bowl, mix the yolks of 2 hardboiled eggs with 1 teaspoon of French mustard.
Add ½ teaspoon of dry mustard if using, along with 1 teaspoon of tarragon vinegar, 1 teaspoon of grated cheese, and 1 teaspoon of ketchup.
Pour in 4 tablespoons of oil and 1 tablespoon of cider vinegar.
Beat the mixture well until smooth.
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.
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Mustard + tarragontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together901 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
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Vinegar + cidertop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,431 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
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Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,547 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Mustard + cheesetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,805 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg yolks
- Emulsify the oil and vinegar into a smooth, thick dressing.
- French mustard
- Adds sharpness and helps hold the oil and vinegar together as an emulsion.
- Oil
- Provides the fat that gives the dressing its body and richness.
- Cider vinegar
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the richness of the oil.
The step that matters
Pour in the oil and beat until smooth. Oil must be added gradually and beaten in so the fat disperses into tiny droplets held by the egg yolk. Adding it all at once or beating too little can cause the dressing to split and look greasy instead of smooth.
Swap the tarragon
The recipe marks tarragon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, mustard, vinegar, cheese, ketchup, cider):
- Tarragonthe original
- Capersfits about as well
- Allspicefits about as well
- Celeryfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, mustard, vinegar, cheese, ketchup, cider. 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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