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Salad

French Dressing

A vinaigrette dressing made with olive oil, vinegar or lemon juice, garlic, paprika, salt, pepper, and optional Worcestershire sauce or Kitchen Bouquet.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Olive and garlic are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 25,665 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

French Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, combine garlic and a piece of ice the size of a hickory nut.

  2. Add salt and pepper, then gradually stir in the olive oil.

  3. Once the salt is dissolved, add the vinegar or lemon juice gradually.

  4. For variation, mix in Worcestershire sauce or Kitchen Bouquet.

  5. Chopped mint, chives, or parsley can be added for extra flavor.

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. Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,665 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Garlic + peppertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,090 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Clove + minttop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together576 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Garlic + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,368 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Olive oil
Forms the body of the dressing and carries fat-soluble flavor.
Vinegar or lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the oil.
Garlic
Contributes pungent aroma and savory flavor.

The step that matters

Add the oil gradually. Adding oil slowly while stirring lets it disperse into tiny droplets, so the dressing emulsifies and stays combined rather than separating into layers.

Swap the mint

The recipe marks mint as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, vinegar, garlic, clove, pepper, sauce):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Basilfits better
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, vinegar, garlic, clove, pepper, 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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