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Salad

Red Dressing

A vinaigrette made with tomato, red pepper, onion juice, vinegar, olive 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: Tomato and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,539 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Red Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mix salt and pepper with onion juice.

  2. Peel and chop the tomato, draining off most of the juice.

  3. Add the chopped tomato, red pepper, and vinegar to the mixture.

  4. Slowly pour in the olive oil while mixing thoroughly.

  5. Set the dressing on ice 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. Tomato + olivetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,539 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Onion + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,779 recipes

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

  5. Vinegar + olivetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Olive oil
Forms the emulsion that gives the dressing its body and rich mouthfeel.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the oil.
Tomato
Contributes moisture and body, along with fruity flavour, to the dressing.
Red pepper
Adds fresh, sweet-sharp vegetable flavour and some bulk to the dressing.

The step that matters

Slowly pour in the olive oil while mixing thoroughly. Adding oil gradually while mixing breaks it into tiny droplets suspended in the acidic liquid. Pouring too fast lets the oil separate out, so the dressing stays greasy and unstable.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Cucumberfits better
  3. Eggplantfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, tomato, vinegar, olive. 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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