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Salad

French Dressing

A light salad dressing made with olive oil, salt, pepper, onion juice, vinegar, and optional mustard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,259 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

French Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, combine olive oil, salt, pepper, onion juice, and vinegar.

  2. Add the olive oil slowly while stirring constantly.

  3. If desired, substitute vinegar with lemon juice and add prepared 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. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  2. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Olive + mustardtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Olive + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,779 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 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

Olive oil
Forms the fat base that gives the dressing body and a smooth mouthfeel.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the richness of the oil.
Prepared mustard
Acts as an emulsifier, helping oil and acid stay blended instead of separating.

The step that matters

Adding the olive oil slowly while stirring constantly. Oil dispersed gradually into the acidic liquid forms small droplets held in suspension. Pouring it in quickly lets the droplets merge, so the oil separates out of the dressing.

Swap the mustard

The recipe marks mustard as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, pepper, onion, vinegar):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, pepper, onion, 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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