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French Dressing

A vinaigrette dressing made with salt, pepper, cayenne or paprika, vinegar or lemon juice, oil, mustard, and onion or garlic.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,259 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

French Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. Mix the salt, pepper, cayenne, and mustard in a bowl.

  2. Add the oil and mix again.

  3. Gradually add the vinegar or lemon juice, a few drops at a time, and beat until an emulsion forms.

  4. For a chilled dressing, add a bit of ice to the bowl while mixing.

Serve

  1. Pour over the vegetables, toss with a spoon and fork, and serve.

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

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

  2. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Vinegar + oniontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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, as the fat phase of the emulsion.
Vinegar or lemon juice
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and forms the watery phase of the emulsion.
Prepared mustard
Acts as an emulsifier, helping oil and acid stay blended instead of separating.

The step that matters

Adding the vinegar or lemon juice. Adding the acid slowly, a few drops at a time while beating, lets tiny droplets disperse in the oil. Pouring it in all at once can make the dressing separate.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Cabbagefits about as well
  4. Cucumberfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, vinegar, onion. 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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