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Salad

French Cheese Dressing

A salad dressing made with Roquefort cheese, olive oil, paprika, vinegar, garlic, and lettuce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Olive and garlic are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 25,665 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

French Cheese Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Rub a salad bowl with garlic.

Make the dressing

  1. Cream the Roquefort cheese with the olive oil until light.

  2. Gradually add the paprika and vinegar.

Serve

  1. Serve over quartered head lettuce.

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. Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,665 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  2. Olive + lettucetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Garlic + lettucetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Clove + lettucetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together486 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Clove + garlictop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,368 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Roquefort cheese
Provides the main flavor and body of the dressing, giving it a sharp, savory character.
Olive oil
Creams with the cheese to make a smooth, rich dressing that carries flavor.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich cheese and oil.
Lettuce
Serves as the base the dressing is spooned over, adding crisp texture.

The step that matters

Creaming the cheese with the olive oil until light. Cheese and oil must be worked together until smooth and light so the dressing emulsifies evenly. If the cheese stays in lumps, the dressing will be grainy and uneven when the vinegar is added.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, garlic, roquefort cheese, vinegar, lettuce. 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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