Why it works: Mustard and tarragon 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 ↓
Salad Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Mash the hard-boiled egg yolks in a bowl.
Add grated Parmesan cheese, mustard, tarragon vinegar, and ketchup; mix well.
Slowly incorporate salad oil and elder vinegar, beating until combined.
Do not pour the mixture over the salad; leave it at the bottom to stir in when ready to serve.
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.
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Mustard + tarragontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together901 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
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Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,547 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Parmesan cheese + mustardtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together545 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Mustard + ketchuptop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together331 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
- Hard-boiled egg yolks
- Mashed yolks form a rich, emulsifying base that gives the dressing body.
- Salad oil
- Adds fat and smoothness, carrying flavour and giving the dressing a creamy texture.
- Elder vinegar
- Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the oil.
- Grated parmesan cheese
- Contributes savoury, salty flavour and umami to the dressing.
The step that matters
Slowly incorporate the salad oil. Adding oil slowly while beating lets the egg yolk emulsify it into a stable, smooth dressing. Pouring it in quickly can cause the mixture to separate and look greasy.
Swap the tarragon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, parmesan cheese, mustard, vinegar, ketchup):
- Capersfits better
- Tarragonthe original
- Celeryfits less well
- Allspicefits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, parmesan cheese, mustard, vinegar, 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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