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Salad

Salad Dressing for Four

A simple vinaigrette-style dressing made with egg, sugar, salt, vinegar, oil, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,547 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Salad Dressing for Four

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, combine the egg, sugar, and salt.

  2. Gradually add the tarragon vinegar and salad vinegar, drop by drop.

  3. Slowly whisk in the salad oil.

  4. Finally, fold in the cream until well combined.

Serve

  1. Pour over the salad just before serving.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

  4. Tarragon + creamtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together574 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Its yolk helps oil and vinegar stay blended into a smooth, thick emulsion.
Salad oil
Provides fat for a rich mouthfeel and carries flavor through the dressing.
Tarragon vinegar
Adds acidity and a sharp, herbal tang that cuts through the fat.
Salad vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the oil.
Sugar
Softens the sharpness of the vinegar, giving a rounder, balanced flavor.
Cream
Adds richness and a softer, creamier texture to the dressing.

The step that matters

Add the vinegar and oil slowly while whisking. Egg yolk can only hold oil and vinegar together as an emulsion if they are added gradually. Adding them too fast causes the dressing to separate into a greasy, watery mixture.

Swap the tarragon

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

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Tarragonthe original
  3. Cinnamonfits about as well
  4. Peppermintfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, vinegar, cream. 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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