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Vinaigrette Dressing

A simple vinaigrette dressing made with onion, vinegar, parsley, chives, green pepper, oil, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Vinaigrette Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, combine the chopped onion, vinegar, parsley, salt, pepper, chives, and green pepper. Mix well to combine all the ingredients.

  2. Slowly add the oil while stirring.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Onion + chivetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,907 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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

Oil
Forms the body of the dressing and carries flavor and a smooth mouthfeel.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the oil.
Onion
Contributes sharp aromatic flavor and a bit of crunch.
Green pepper
Adds fresh, slightly bitter vegetable flavor and crisp texture.

The step that matters

Slowly add the oil while stirring. Oil and vinegar do not mix on their own. Adding oil slowly while stirring breaks it into tiny droplets suspended in the vinegar, so the dressing stays combined instead of separating into layers.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

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