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Salad

French Dressing

A simple vinaigrette made with salt, paprika, olive oil, vinegar, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Olive and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,922 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

French Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, mix the salt and paprika.

  2. Add the olive oil, vinegar, and lemon juice.

  3. Stir until well blended.

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 + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,922 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Olive + vinegartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  3. Vinegar + lemontop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,334 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

Olive oil
Provides fat and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel that carries the dressing's flavour.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the oil.
Lemon juice
Adds fresh acidity and citrus aroma that sharpen the flavour.

The step that matters

Stir until well blended. Oil and acid do not mix on their own and separate as the dressing stands. Thorough stirring breaks the oil into small droplets held in the vinegar and juice, so the dressing looks uniform. Stir again before serving if it has settled.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, vinegar):

  1. Cherryfits better
  2. Avocadofits better
  3. Plumfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, vinegar. 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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