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French Dressing

A vinaigrette dressing made with vinegar, salt, pepper, oil, and optional cayenne or paprika.

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

French Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mix salt, pepper, and oil in a bowl.

  2. Slowly stir in the vinegar while beating with a fork until the mixture is light and slightly thickened.

  3. Add a dash of paprika or cayenne.

  4. Optionally, use half tarragon vinegar.

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).

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

What each ingredient does

Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the richness of the oil.
Oil
Provides fat that carries flavour and gives the dressing a smooth mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Slowly stir in the vinegar while beating. Adding vinegar gradually while beating breaks it into fine droplets dispersed through the oil. This temporary emulsion keeps the dressing lightly thickened and evenly combined instead of separating into layers.

“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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