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Salad

French Dressing

A simple vinaigrette made with vinegar, oil, salt, paprika, mustard, and optional onion juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,259 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

French Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine vinegar or lemon juice, salt, and paprika in a bowl.

  2. Slowly add the oil while stirring continuously.

  3. Mix in tarragon vinegar, mustard, and onion juice if desired.

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 + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  2. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Vinegar + oniontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Oil
Forms the body of the dressing and gives it a rich, smooth mouthfeel.
Vinegar or lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the oil.
Mustard
Acts as an emulsifier that helps the oil and acid stay blended.

The step that matters

Slowly add the oil while stirring continuously. Adding oil gradually while stirring breaks it into small droplets dispersed in the acid. Pouring it in too fast lets the oil separate out, so the dressing stays oily and loose rather than blended.

“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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