Name: Vineagrette Salad Dressing
Ingredients: 4 tablespoons oil; 2 tablespoons tarragon vinegar; 2 tablespoons minced pickles; 2 tablespoons minced olives; 1 tablespoon pickled onion (optional); ¼ teaspoon salt; 2 teaspoons mustard; 1 teaspoon white pepper

Why it works: Tarragon and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 901 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

Vineagrette Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

In a bowl, combine the oil and tarragon vinegar.
Add the minced pickles, olives, and pickled onion if using.
Stir in the salt, mustard, and white pepper 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.

Tarragon + mustardtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together901 recipes

Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,259 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,547 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Olive + mustardtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,950 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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 flavour and a silky mouthfeel.
Tarragon vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the oil.
Mustard: Acts as an emulsifier that helps oil and vinegar hold together and adds sharp flavour.
Minced olives: Contribute salty, briny flavour and a chopped texture to the dressing.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tarragon, vinegar, olive, mustard, white pepper):

Lettucefits better
Shallotfits better
Horseradishfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tarragon, vinegar, olive, mustard, white pepper. 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.