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Salad

Cress-salad

A salad of chopped cress dressed with a mustard, oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Cress-salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the cress into small pieces and place in a salad bowl.

  2. Sprinkle with sugar.

Make the dressing

  1. In a separate bowl, mix salt, pepper, and mustard with oil.

  2. Gradually add vinegar while whisking with an egg beater until well combined.

Dress and serve

  1. Pour the dressing over the cress and toss with a fork.

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. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  5. Mustard + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,424 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Cress
Forms the leafy base of the salad and provides its fresh, peppery flavor.
Oil
Carries fat-soluble flavors and gives the dressing a smooth, rich body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the oil.
Prepared mustard
Helps emulsify the oil and vinegar so the dressing stays combined.
Sugar
Softens the sharpness of the vinegar and mustard for a balanced sweetness.

The step that matters

Adding the vinegar gradually while whisking. Adding vinegar slowly while whisking breaks the oil into tiny droplets, creating a stable emulsion. Pouring it in all at once can make the dressing separate.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Cabbagefits less well
  4. Cucumberfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, vinegar, sugar. 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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