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Salad

French Dressing

A vinaigrette made with mustard, salt, pepper, olive oil, and English malt vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

French Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, combine the mustard, salt, and pepper.

  2. Slowly whisk in the olive oil until well blended.

  3. Add the English malt vinegar and mix thoroughly.

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. Mustard + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

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

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

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 that carries the flavor and gives the dressing its body.
English malt vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the oil.
Mustard
Acts as an emulsifier that helps hold the oil and vinegar together.

The step that matters

Slowly whisk in the olive oil. Adding oil gradually while whisking breaks it into tiny droplets dispersed in the mixture. Mustard helps these droplets stay suspended, so the dressing stays smooth instead of separating.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits about as well
  3. Mustardthe original
  4. Cucumberfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, malt, vinegar, pepper. 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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