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Salad

Bacon Fat Salad Dressing

A salad dressing made from bacon or ham fat, vinegar, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,814 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Bacon Fat Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. Cut the bacon or ham into small dice.

  2. Fry gently until the oil turns a very light brown color.

  3. Remove the bacon fat from heat.

  4. Add vinegar to the bacon fat.

Serve

  1. Pour the mixture over the seasoned salad.

  2. If desired, strain the dressing to remove bacon bits, but they add flavor.

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. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  2. Ham + vinegartop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).

  3. Ham + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,058 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

Bacon or ham
Supplies the fat that is rendered out to form the dressing base and adds savory flavor.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the rich bacon fat and balances the dressing.
Bacon fat
Provides the richness, mouthfeel and flavor carrier for the dressing.

The step that matters

Frying the bacon gently until the fat is only lightly browned. Over-high heat or long frying darkens and scorches the fat, giving it a bitter, burnt taste. Gentle heat keeps the fat sweet and clean-flavored before the vinegar is added.

“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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