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Salad

Italian Sauce for Salaos

A vinaigrette made with sauce tournde, mustard, tarragon, chervil, salad oil, tarragon vinegar, and coarse sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and chervil match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 824 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Italian Sauce for Salaos

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine 3 tablespoons sauce tournde, 1 tablespoon mustard, and a little chopped tarragon and chervil in a bowl.

  2. Blend well while gradually adding 3 tablespoons or more salad oil until smooth.

  3. Slowly mix in 1 glass tarragon vinegar, ensuring it does not appear oily.

  4. Add a little coarse sea salt to taste and pour over the salad.

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 + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together824 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Mustard + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together901 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Mustard + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together207 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Sauce tournde
Forms the base of the dressing, giving it body and a savory flavor.
Mustard
Helps emulsify the oil and vinegar so the dressing stays smooth.
Salad oil
Provides fat and a silky, rich mouthfeel to the dressing.
Tarragon vinegar
Adds acidity and sharp flavor that balances the oil.

The step that matters

Adding the vinegar slowly. Pouring vinegar in too quickly can break the emulsion, so the dressing looks oily and separated instead of smooth. Mixing it in gradually keeps the oil suspended in the acidic liquid.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Lettucefits about as well
  3. Mustardthe original
  4. Chivefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, tarragon, chervil, vinegar. 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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