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Honey–Poppy Seed Salad Dressing Recipe

This honey–poppy seed salad dressing recipe is a mixture of cider vinegar, honey, mustard, and poppy seeds.

By chow · From Open Recipes · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Honey and poppy seed work together. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 91 recipes mention both. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

The recipe

About 1 cup
Cook5 min

Ingredients

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the cider vinegar, honey, Dijon mustard, and kosher salt until the honey dissolves, about 1 minute.

  2. Add the poppy seeds and a few grinds of freshly ground black pepper, then whisk to combine.

  3. While whisking constantly, slowly drizzle in the vegetable oil so the dressing emulsifies and looks smooth and slightly thickened, about 2 minutes.

  4. Taste and adjust the salt and pepper as needed.

  5. Transfer to a jar with a lid and shake well before serving over salad greens.

By chow. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Honey + poppy seedtop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together91 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Vinegar + mustardtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cider + vinegartop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together402 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  4. Vinegar + honeytop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,583 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Cider + honeytop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together109 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl decanoate (grape, waxy).

Vinegar and mustard share little aroma chemistry, yet 14,067 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Flavor stand-ins for the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cider, vinegar, honey, poppy seed, pepper):

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Tomatoabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against cider, vinegar, honey, poppy seed, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).