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Sauce

Russian Salad Dressing

A savoury salad dressing made from oil, malt vinegar, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, horseradish and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Sauce and ketchup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,099 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Russian Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, combine the olive oil or peanut oil, malt vinegar, paprika, salt, sugar, Worcestershire sauce, tomato ketchup, horseradish, and cinnamon.

  2. Whip all the ingredients together using an egg beater until well mixed.

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. Sauce + ketchuptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,539 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Sugar + ketchuptop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together260 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Olive + vinegartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  5. Ketchup + horseradishtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together223 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Olive oil or peanut oil
Provides fat that makes the dressing smooth and rich while carrying the flavours.
Malt vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances its sweetness.
Tomato ketchup
Adds sweetness, tomato flavour and body to the dressing.
Horseradish
Adds sharp, pungent heat that gives the dressing its characteristic bite.

The step that matters

Whip until well mixed. Oil and vinegar naturally separate, so vigorous whisking breaks the oil into tiny droplets and helps the dressing stay emulsified and uniform.

Swap the horseradish

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, malt, vinegar, sugar, sauce, tomato, ketchup):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Cucumberfits about as well
  4. Horseradishthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, malt, vinegar, sugar, sauce, tomato, ketchup. 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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