Why it works: Tomato and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,539 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Cream Salad Dressing
Ingredients
Directions
In a bowl, mix the olive oil, salt, sugar, and vinegar together.
Beat in the tomato catsup gradually.
Finally, add the cream, beating it in gradually.
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.
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Tomato + olivetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,539 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Vinegar + olivetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,297 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
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Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,806 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Vinegar + tomatotop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,063 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
- Cream
- Provides richness and a smooth, creamy body to the dressing.
- Olive oil
- Adds fat for mouthfeel and helps carry flavour through the dressing.
- Vinegar
- Adds sharp acidity that brightens the dressing and balances its sweetness.
- Tomato catsup
- Contributes tomato flavour, sweetness and body to the dressing.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness that rounds out the acidity of the vinegar.
The step that matters
Adding the cream gradually. Cream is an emulsion that can split or curdle if it is added too fast or mixed too hard. Beating it in slowly keeps the dressing smooth and evenly blended.
Swap the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, vinegar, sugar, olive):
- Mustardfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Cucumberfits better
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cream, vinegar, sugar, olive. 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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