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Salad

Salad Dressing, French

A French salad dressing made with salad oil, tarragon vinegar, salt, pepper, tarragon, parsley, and chives or shallot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,563 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Salad Dressing, French

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, combine the salad oil, tarragon vinegar, salt, and pepper.

  2. Add the finely chopped tarragon, parsley, and chives or shallot.

  3. Mix well and let the dressing soak for 30 minutes before using.

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. Tarragon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + chivetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Tarragon + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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 and carries the flavour of the herbs.
Tarragon vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the oil and gives the dressing its tarragon character.
Chives or shallot
Adds a mild onion-like aroma and sharpness to the dressing.

The step that matters

Letting the dressing soak. Oil and vinegar separate quickly, so mixing well and resting the dressing lets the herb flavours move into the oil and vinegar. Shake or whisk again before serving, because the dressing will settle.

Swap the chive

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tarragon, vinegar, pepper, parsley):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Lettucefits about as well
  4. Chivethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tarragon, vinegar, pepper, parsley. 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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