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Modern Cookery

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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

  1. Combine tarragon vinegar, egg yolks, chopped capers, and chopped gherkins in a bowl.

  2. Add olives if desired.

  3. Slowly whisk in plenty of oil until well blended.

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

Egg yolks
Emulsifier that binds the oil and vinegar into a smooth, stable dressing.
Oil
Forms the bulk of the dressing, giving body and a rich mouthfeel.
Tarragon vinegar
Provides the acidity and the main aromatic flavour of the dressing.
Chopped capers
Add salty, tangy bite and texture to the dressing.
Chopped gherkins
Add sharp acidity and crunch to balance the richness of the oil.

The step that matters

Slowly whisk in the oil. Egg yolk lecithin emulsifies oil into the vinegar only if oil is added slowly while whisking. Pouring it in too fast can make the dressing separate and break.

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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