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Salad

Modern Cookery

A vinaigrette made with tarragon vinegar, minced tarragon, eschalots, oil, egg yolks, capers, gherkins, and optional olives.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and capers match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 379 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Modern Cookery

Ingredients

Directions

Make the vinaigrette

  1. In a bowl, combine tarragon vinegar, minced tarragon, and eschalots.

  2. Add the oil and mix well.

  3. Incorporate the egg yolks and stir until smooth.

  4. Fold in the chopped capers, gherkins, and olives if using.

Serve

  1. Serve as a dressing or sauce.

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. Tarragon + caperstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together379 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Capers + olivetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,688 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Tarragon + olivetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,323 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Vinegar + olivetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

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, giving it richness and a smooth mouthfeel.
Egg yolks
Emulsifiers that bind the oil and vinegar so the dressing stays smooth and creamy.
Tarragon vinegar
Provides the acidity and the main tarragon flavour of the dressing.

The step that matters

Incorporating the egg yolks. Egg yolks help emulsify oil and acid into a stable, smooth dressing. Adding them too quickly or not stirring thoroughly can leave the oil separated and the texture greasy.

Swap the capers

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tarragon, vinegar, egg, olive):

  1. Capersthe original
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Dillfits about as well
  4. Thymefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against tarragon, vinegar, egg, 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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