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Salad

White French Dressing

A vinaigrette made with white vinegar, lemon juice, olive oil, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

White French Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. Boil the vinegar, salt, onion, hot water, and white pepper for 15 minutes.

  2. Strain the mixture and let it cool.

  3. Add the sugar.

  4. Add the olive oil blended with lemon juice.

  5. Blend thoroughly and strain again.

Store

  1. Store in a bottle; it will keep for weeks.

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. Onion + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,779 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

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

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

White vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that defines the dressing's tang.
Olive oil
Adds fat and body, emulsifying with the acidic liquid into a smooth dressing.
Sugar
Balances the acidity with a touch of sweetness.
Lemon juice
Adds extra acidity and bright citrus flavour.

The step that matters

Blending the oil with the lemon juice and then the mixture thoroughly. Oil and acidic liquid separate on their own. Blending thoroughly breaks the oil into tiny droplets that stay suspended, giving a smooth, cohesive dressing rather than a layered one.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, onion, sugar, olive, lemon. 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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