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Salad

French Salad Dressing

A simple vinaigrette made with vinegar, olive oil, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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French Salad Dressing

Why it works: Vinegar and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,297 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, fruity. The science ↓

French Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dressing

  1. Mix vinegar, olive oil, pepper, and salt in a cup.

Dress the salad

  1. Pour over the salad just before serving.

  2. Gently mix through without crushing the lettuce.

  3. If mixing directly on the salad, pour the oil first, then mix.

  4. Combine vinegar, salt, and pepper in a spoon until dissolved, then sprinkle over the salad.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Vinegar + olivetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  2. Olive + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Olive oil
Provides the fat and body of the dressing and carries its flavour across the leaves.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the dressing and balances the richness of the oil.

The step that matters

Dress the salad just before serving. Salt and acid draw water out of lettuce leaves, so dressed greens soften and wilt if they sit. Mixing gently keeps the leaves intact and the dressing evenly spread.

“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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