Name: French Dressing
Ingredients: 1 clove garlic; coarse sea salt; paprika; Worcestershire sauce; oil; vinegar

Why it works: Clove and garlic are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,368 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

French Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Crush the garlic in a bowl.
Add plenty of coarse sea salt, paprika, and Worcestershire sauce.
Whisk the mixture until well combined and airy.
Serve over green salads.

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.

Clove + garlictop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,368 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Garlic + vinegartop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,115 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Clove + vinegartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,386 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Garlic + saucetop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,007 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sauce + vinegartop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,844 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).