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Salad

Sydney Smite's Salad Dressing

A vinaigrette made with boiled potatoes, mustard, sea salt, olive oil, vinegar, egg yolks, onion, and anchovy sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Sydney Smite's Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Strain the boiled potatoes through a kitchen sieve.

  2. Add mustard and coarse sea salt to the potatoes.

  3. Mix in olive oil and vinegar.

  4. Incorporate the pounded egg yolks and chopped onion.

  5. Finally, stir in the anchovy sauce.

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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  4. Potato + olivetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,458 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Potato + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,340 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

Boiled potatoes
Strained to a smooth base that thickens the dressing and gives it body.
Olive oil
Provides fat and a silky, emulsified richness to the dressing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the fat.
Boiled egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the oil and vinegar into a creamy texture.
Mustard
Acts as an emulsifier that helps hold the oil and vinegar together.

The step that matters

Incorporate the pounded egg yolks and chopped onion. Adding the oil and vinegar before the yolks are smooth can leave lumps or a separated dressing. Pounding the yolks fine lets them blend evenly into the base so the emulsion stays creamy.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mustard, olive, vinegar, egg, onion, anchovy, sauce):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, olive, vinegar, egg, onion, anchovy, sauce. 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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