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A vinegar and oil dressing seasoned with pepper, salt, tarragon vinegar, and optional capers, chives, or tarragon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Capers and chive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 245 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Stocks, Sauces

Ingredients

Directions

Make the vinaigrette

  1. In a basin or mortar, mix vinegar, pepper, and salt.

  2. Slowly add salad oil drop by drop, mixing with a wooden spoon or pestle.

  3. Continue adding oil until the mixture thickens.

  4. Add 1 teaspoon of tarragon vinegar and mix.

  5. Repeat adding oil and vinegar until the desired consistency is reached.

Finish and serve

  1. For fish, add chopped capers and chives; for salad, add chopped chives and tarragon.

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. Capers + chivetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together245 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Tarragon + caperstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together379 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Tarragon + chivetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together589 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Pepper + tarragontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Vinegar + tarragontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Salad oil
Forms the body of the dressing, giving it richness and a smooth mouthfeel.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the oil.
Tarragon vinegar
Adds a distinct herbal, aromatic note while contributing acidity.

The step that matters

Adding the oil slowly. Oil added too quickly does not disperse into the vinegar and will separate out instead of forming an emulsion. Adding it drop by drop while mixing lets fine droplets be suspended, so the dressing thickens and stays combined.

“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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