Why it works: Vinegar and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,814 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Study of Fat in Cooking Salad Dressings, Etc
Ingredients
Directions
Mix the salt and pepper with the oil.
Slowly add the vinegar while stirring until well combined.
The dressing should appear as a grayish, slightly thickened emulsion.
Serve this dressing on all green salads.
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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Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,814 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Oil
- Forms the main body of the dressing and carries flavor and coats the salad leaves.
- Vinegar
- Adds sharpness and the water phase that the oil droplets disperse into.
The step that matters
Slowly add the vinegar while stirring. Adding the vinegar gradually while stirring breaks it into small droplets that stay suspended in the oil. Pouring it in all at once lets the oil and vinegar separate quickly, so the dressing will not hold together as a smooth emulsion.
“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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